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"LIBERTY." 




THE IMAGE AND SUPERSCRIPTION ON EVERY COIN ISSUUD 
BY THE UNITED STATES OF AJIERICA. 







PROCLAIM LIBERTY THROUGHOUT ALL THE LAND UNTO ALL 
THE INHABITANTS THEREOF. 

TUK INSCRIPTION ON THE BELL IN THE OLD PHILADELPHIA STATKHOUSa« 

'WHICH WAS RUNG JULY 4, 1776, AT THE SIGNING OF 

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPKNDENCK 



1839. 






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"LIBERTY." 



THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created 
equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable 
rights ; that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi- 
ness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among 
men, deriving their powers from the just consent of the governed, 
&c. [See the whole declaration, signed by the delegates of all the 
original states, and adopted as the basis of all the Stale Constitu- 
tions.] 

THE UNITED STATES' CONSTITUTION. 

Amendment. 1. Congress shall make no law respecting an es- 
tablishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or 
abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press ; or the right of the 
people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for a 
redress of grievances. 

VIRGINIA. 



The freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of liberty, 
and can never be restrained but by despotic governments. 




M4)ttO 



ALWAYS TO TYRANTS,' 



4 N. Y. CONSTITUTION INDIANA G. WASHINGTON. 



NEW YORK CONSTITUTION. 

Every citizen may freely speak, write, and publish his sentiments 
on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of that right ; and no 
law shall be passed to restrain or abridge the liberty of speech, or of 
the press. 

INDIANA. 

There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in this 
state, othewise than for the punishment of crimes, whereof the party 
shall have been duly convicted. Nor shall any indenture of any negro 
or mulatto, hereafter made and executed out of the bounds of this state, 
be of any vaUdity within this state. — [Ohio and IlUnois are similar.] 

THE SLAVE-TRADE DECLARED TO BE PIRACY BY 
THE LAW OF THE UNITED STATES, 1820. 

If any citizen of the United States, being of the crew or ship's com- 
pany of any foreign ship or vessel engaged in the slave-trade, or any 
person whatever, being of the crew or ship's company of any ship or 
vessel owned in the whole or part, or navigated for, or in behali of, 
any citizen or citizens of the United States, shall land, from any such 
ship or vessel, and on any foreign shore seize any negro or mulatto, 
not held to service or labor by the laws of either of the states or terri- 
tories of the United States, with intent to make such negro or mulatto 
a slave, or shall decoy, or forcibly bring or carry, or shall receive such 
negro or mulatto on board any such ship or vessel, with intent as 
aforesaid, such citizen or person shall be adjudged a PIRATE, and 
on conviction thereof, before the circuit court of the United States, for 
the district wherein he may be brought or found, shall suffer DEATH. 

GEORGE WASHINGTON. 

The benevolence of your heart, my dear Marquis, is so conspicuous 
on all occasions, that I never wonder at fresh proofs of it ; but your 
late purchase of an estate in the colony of Cayenne, with a view of 
emancipating the slaves, is a generous and noble proof of your hu- 
manity. Would to God, a like spirit might diffuse itself generally 
into the minds of the people of this country ! But I despair of seeing it. 
Some petitions were presented to the Assembly at its last session, for 
the abolition of slavery ; but they could scarcely obtain a hearing. — 
Letter to Lafayette. 

I hope it will not be conceived from these observations, that it is my 
wish to hold the unhappy people who are the subject of this letter, in 
slavery. I can only say, that there is not a man hving, who wishes 
more sincerely than I do, to see a plan adopted for the abolition of it ; 
but there is only one proper and effectual mode by which it can be 
accomplished, and that is, by the legislative authority ; and this, as 
far as my suffrage will go, shall not be wanting. — Letter to Robert 
Morris. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 5 

1 never mean, unless some particular circumstance should compel 
me to it, to possess another slave by purchase ; it being among my first 
wishes to see some plan adopted by ic/iich davery in this coiinlry may be 
abolished by law. — Letter to John F. Mercer. 

Because there are, in Pennsylvania, laws for the gradual abolition of 
slavery, which neither Maryland nor Virginia have at present ; but 
which nothing is more certain than that they must have, and at a 
period not remote. — [Reasons for depreciation of southern lands in a 
letter to Sir John Sinclair.] 

Cambridge, February 28, 1776. 

Miss Phillis, — Your favor of the 26th ol October, did not reach 
my hands till the middle of December. Time enough, you will say, 
to have given an answer ere this. Granted. But a variety of impor- 
tant occurrences, continually interposing to distract the mind and with- 
draw the attention, I hope will apologize for the delay, and plead my 
excuse for the seeming, but not real neglect. I thank you most sin- 
cerely for your polite notice of me, in the elegant lines you enclosed ; 
and however undeserving I may be of such encomium and panegyric, 
the style and manner exhibit a striking proof of your poetical talents ; 
in honor of which, and as a tribute justly due to you, I would have 
pubhshed the poem, had I not been apprehensive, that, while I only 
meant to give the world this new instance of your genius, I might have 
incurred the imputation of vanity. This, and nothing else, deterniined 
me not to give it place in the public prints. 

If you should ever come to Cambridge, or near head-quarters, I shall 
be happy to see a person so favored by the Muses, and to whom nature 
has been so liberal and beneficent in her dispensations. I am, with 
great respect, your obedient humble servant.— Le/ter to Phillis Wheatley. 
[.An Jijrican.] 

Observe good faith and justice towards all nations, cultivate peace 
and harmony with all; religion and morahty enjoin this conduct; and 
can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it ? It will be worthy 
of a free, enlightened, and, at no distant period, a great nation, to give 
to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people 
always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. Who can 
doubt that, in the course of time and things, the fruits of such a plan 
would richly repay any temporary advantages which might be lost by 
a steady adherence to it ? Can it be, that Providence has not connected 
the permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue? The experiment, 
at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human 
nature. Alas ! is it rendered impossible by its vices ? — Farewell 
Address. 

Upon the decease of my wife, it is my will and desire that all my 
slaves, which I hold in my own right, shall receive their freedom. To 
emancipate them during her life, would, though earnestly wished, be 
attended with such insuperable difficulties, on account of their inter- 
mixture by marriages with the dower negroes, as to create the most 
fearful sensation, if not disagreeable consequences from the latter, 
while both descriptions are in the occupancy of the same proprietor; it 



6 JOHN ADAMS LAFAYETTE. 

not being in my power, under the tenure by which the dower negroes 
are held to inaiuimit theni. And, whereas, among those who will 
receive their freedom according to tliis clause, there may be some, who, 
from old age, or bodily infirmities, and others, who, on account of their 
infancy, will be unable to support themselves, it is my will and desire 
that all who coane under the first and second descriptions, shall be 
comfortably clothed and fed by my heirs while Uiey live ; and that such 
of the latter description as have no parents living, or if living, are unable 
or unwilling to provide for them, shall be bound by the Court until they 
shall arrive at the age of twenty-five years: and in case where no 
record can be produced whereby their ages can be ascertained, the 
judgment of the Court upon its own view of the subject, shall be 
adequate and final. The negroes thus bound, are by their masters 
and mistresses to be taught to read and write, and to be brought up to 
some useful occupation, agreeably to the laws of the commonwealth 
of Virginia, providing for the support of orphans and other poor children. 
And 1 do hereby expressly forbid the sale or transportation out of the 
said commonwealth, of any slave I may die possessed of, u.jder any 
pretence whatever. And I do, moreover, most pointedly and most 
solemnly enjoin it upon my executors, hereafter named, or the survivor 
of them, to see that this clause respecting slaves, and every part thereof 
be religiously fufilled, at the epoch at which it is directed to take place, 
without evasion, neglect, or delay, after the crops which may then be 
on the ground are harvested. Particularly as it respects the aged and 
infirm, seeing that a regular and permanent fund be established for 
their support, as long as there are subjects requiring it, not trusting to 
the uncertain provisions to be made by individuals. — Washingtmi's Will. 

JOHN ADAMS. 

The day is passed — the 4th of July, 1776, will be a memorable 
epocha in the history of America. It ought to be commemorated as 
the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to Almighty God. 
It ought to be solemnized with pomp, shows, &c., from one end of the 
continent to the other, from this time forward for ever ! You will think 
me transported with enthusiasm ; but I am not. I am well aware of 
the toil, and blood, and treasure that it will cost to maintain this Decla- 
ration, and support and defend these states ; yet through all the gloom, 
I can see the rays of light and glory. — I can see that the end is worth 
more than all the means ; and that posterity will triumph although you 
and I may rue, wliich 1 liope we shall not — Letter, Philadelphia, July 
5th, 1776. 

Great is Truth — great is Liberty — great is Humanity; and they 
must and will prevail. — Letter to a friend. 

LAFAYETTE. 

While I am indulging in my views of American prospects, and 
American liberty, it is mortifying to be told that in that very country, 
a large portion of the people are slaves ! It is a dark sy.ot on the face 
of the nation. Such a state of things cannot always exist. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 7 

I see in the papers, that there is a plan of gradual abolition of slavery 
in the district of Columbia. I would be doubly happy of it, for the 
measure in itself, and because a sense of American pride makes me 
recoil at the observations of the diplomatists, and other foreigners, who 
gladly improve the unfortunate existing circumstances into a general 
objection to our republican, and (saving that deplorable evil) our 
matchless system. 

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual 
exercise of the most boisterous passions ; the most unremitting despo- 
tism on the one part and degrading submissions on the other. Our 
children see this and learn to imitate it; for man is an imitative animal. 
This quality is the germ of all education in him. From his cradle to 
his grave he is learning to do what he sees others do. If a parent 
could find no motive either in his philanthropy or his self-love, for 
restraining the intemperance of passion towards his slave, it should 
always be a sufficient one that his cliild is present. But generally it 
is not sufficient. The parent storms, the child looks on, catches the 
lineaments of wrath, puts on the same airs in the circle of smaller 
slaves, gives loose to his worst passions, and thus nursed, educated, 
and daily exercised in tyranny, cannot but be stamped by it with 
odious peculiarities. The man must be a prodigy who can retain his 
manners and morals undepraved by such circumstances. And with 
what execration should the statesman be loaded, who permitting one 
half the citizens thus to trample on the rights of the other, transforms 
those into despots, and these into enemies, destroys the morals of the 
one part, and the amor patriae of the other. For if the slave can have 
a country in this world, it must be any other in preference to that in 
which he is born to live and labor for another : in which he must lock 
up the faculties of his nature, contribute as far as depends on his indi- 
vidual endeavors to the evanishment of the human race, or entail his 
own miserable condition on the endless generations proceeding from 
him. With the morals of the people, their industry also is destroyed. 
For in a warm climate no man will labor for himself who can make 
another labor for him. This is so true, that of the proprietors of slaves, 
a very small proportion indeed are ever seen to labor. And can the 
liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their 
only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these 
liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but 
with his wrath ? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that 
God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever; that considering 
numbers, nature, and natural means only, a revolution of the wheel 
of fortune, an exchange of situation, is among possible events : that it 
may become probable by supernatural interference ! The Almighty 
has no attribute which can take side with us in such a contest. 

What an incomprehensible machine is man ! Who can endure toil, 
famine, stripes, imprisonment, and death itself, in vindication of his 
own liberty, and the next moment be deaf to all those motives whose 



8 THOMAS JErFERSON. 

power supported him through his trial, and inflict on his fellow men a 
bondage, one hour of which is fraught with more misery than ages of 
that which he rose in rebellion to oppose. But we must wait with 
patience the workings of an overruling Providence, and hope that that 
is preparing the dehverence of these our suffering brethren. When 
tlie measure of their tears shall be full — when their tears shall have 
involved heaven itself in darkness — doubtless a God of justice will 
awaken to their distress, and by diffusing a light and liberality among 
their oppressors, or at length by his exterminating thunder manifest 
his attention to things of this world, and that they are not left to the 
guidance of blind fatality. — Aoies o?i Virginia. 

I am very sensible of the honor you propose to me, of becoming a 
member of the society for the abolition of the slave-trade. You know 
that nobody v.ishes more ardently to see an abolition, not only of the 
trade but of the condition of slavery ; and certainly nobody will be 
more willing to encounter every sacrifice for that object. But the 
influence and information of the friends to this proposition in France 
will be far above the need of my association. — Letter to JSI. Warville, 
Paris, February, 1788. 

Dear Sir, — Your favor of July 31st was duly received, and was 
read with peculiar pleasure. The sentiments breathed through the 
whole, do honor to both the head and heart of the writer. Mine, on 
the subject of the slavery of negroes, have long since been in possession 
of the public, and time has only served to give them stronger root. 
The love of justice and the love of country plead equally the cause of 
these people; and it is a moral reproach to us that they should have 
pleaded it so long in vain, and should have produced not a single 
effort, — nay, I fear, not much serious willingness to relieve them and 
ourselves from our present condition of moral and political reprobation. 

It is an encouraging observation, that no good measure was ever 
proposed which, if duly pursued, failed to prevail in the end. We 
have proof of this in the history of the endeavors in the British Parlia- 
ment to suppress that very trade which brought this evil on us. And 
you will be supported by the religious precept, " be not weary in well 
doing." That your success may be as speedy and complete, as it will 
be honorable and immortal consolation to yourself, I shall as fervently 
and sincerely pray as I assure you of my great friendship and respect. 
— Letter to Edward Cole, Esq., *^ugust 25, 1814. 

PREAMBLE TO THE PENNSYLVANIA ACT, 1780. 

We conceive that it is our duty, and we rejoice that it is in our 
power, to extend a portion of that freedom to others wliich has been 
extended to us, and rtheve from that state of thraldom, to which we 
ourselves were tyrannically doomed, and from which we have now 
every prospect of bcin«j delivered. It is not for us to inquire why, in 
in the creation of mankmd, the inhabitants of the diflerent parts of the 
earth were distinguished by a difference of features and complexion. 
It is sufticient to know, that all are the work of an Almighty hand. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 9 

We find in the distribution of the human species, that the most fertile, 
as well as the most barren parts of the earth are inhabited by men of 
different complexions from ours, and from each other ; from whence, 
we may reasonably, as well as religiously infer, that He, who placed 
them in their various situations, haih extended equally his care and 
protection to all, and that it becometh not us to counteract his mercies. 
We esteem it a peculiar blessing, granted to us, that we are this day 
enabled to add one more step to universal civilization, by removing, as 
much as possible, the sorrows of those who have lived in undeserved 
bondage, and from which, by the assumed authority of the kings of 
Great Britain, no effectual legal relief could be obtained. Weaned by 
^ long course of experience from those narrow prejudices and partiali- 
ties we had imbibed, we find our hearts enlarged with kindness and 
ber^evolence towards men of all conditions and nations ; and we con- 
ceive ourselves, at this particular period, extraordinarily called upon 
by the blessing which we have received, to manifest the sincerity of 
our professions, and to give a substantial proof of our gratitude. 

And whereas, the condition of those persons who have heretofore 
been denominated negro and mulatto slaves, has been attended with 
circumstances which not only deprived them of the common blessing 
they were by nature entitled to, but has cast them into the deepest 
afflictions, by an unnatural separation and sale of husband and wife 
from each other, and from their children ; an injury, the greatness of 
which, can only be conceived by supposing that we were in the same 
unhappy case. In justice, therefore, to persons so unhappily circum- 
stanced, and who, having no prospect before them, wherein they may 
rest their sorrows and their hopes, have no reasonable inducement to 
render the service to society which they otherwise might, and also, in 
grateful commemoration of our own happy deliverance from that state 
of unconditional submission, to which we were doomed by the tyranny 
of Britain. Be it enacted, That no child hereafter born shall be a 
slave, &c. 

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

Ubi Libertas, ibi Patria 

WTiere Liberty dwells, thei e is my country. 

Two other societies were also established in Philadelphia about 
this period, founded on the principles of the most refined humanity; 
one '^'^for alleviating the miseries of public prisons,^'' and the other, "/o? 
promoting the abolition of slavery, the relief of free negroes xinlaufulli 
held in bondage, and the improvement of the condition of the African 
race.'''' — Of each of these. Dr. Franklin was president. He had as 
early as the year 1772, strongly expressed his abhorrence of the traffic in 
slaves, as appears by his letter of the 2-2d August, in that year, to Mr. 
Anthony Benezet, inserted in the first part of his Private Correspondence. 

According to Stuber''s account. Dr. Franklin's name, as president 
of the Abolition Society, was signed to the memorial presented to the 
House of Representatives of the United States, on the 12th of Feb- 
ruary, 1789, praying them to exert the full extent of power vested in 



10 BENJAMIX RUSH ANTHONY BENEZET. 

them by the Constitution, in discouraging the traffic of the human 
species. This was his last pubhc act — Memoirs by Wnu TempU 
Franklin. 

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States : 

From a persuasion that equal hberty was originally the portion, and 
is still the birthright of all men, and influenced by the strong ties of 
humanity and the principles of their institution, your memoriahsts con- 
ceive themselves bound to use all justifiable endeavors to loosen the 
bands of slavery, and promote a general enjoyment of the blessings of 
freedom. Under these impressions, they earnestly entreat your serious 
attention to the subject of slavery ; that you will be pleased to counte- 
nance the restoration of liberty to those unhappy men, who alone in 
this land of freedom, are degraded into perpetual bondage, and who 
amidst the general joy of surrounding freemen, are groaning in servile 
subjection — that you will devise means for removing this inconsistency 
from the character of the American people — that you will promote 
mercy and justice toward tliis distressed race — and that you will step 
to the very verge of the power vested in you for discouraging every 
species of traffic in the persons of our fellow men. 

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, President. 
Philadelphia, Feb. 3, 1790. [Federal Gazette, 1790.] 

BENJAMIN RUSH. 

The [cruel] master's wealth cannot make him happy. — The suffer- 
ings of a single hour in the world of misery, for which he is preparing 
himself will over balance all the pleasures he ever enjoyed in this life — 
and for every act of unnecessary severity he inflicts on his slaves, he 
shall suffer tenfold in the world to come. 

His unkind behaviour is upon record against him. The gentle 
spirits in heaven, whose happiness consists in expressions of gratitude 
and love, will have no fellowship with him. His soul must be melted 
with pity, or he can never escape the punishment which awaits the 
hard-hearted, equally with the impenitent, in the regions of misery. — 
Paradise of J^egro Slaves. 

About the year 1775, I read a short essay with which I was much 
pleased, in one of Bradford's papers, against the slavery of the Africans 
m our country, and which, I was informed, was written by Thomas 
Paine. This excited my curiosity to be better acquainted with him. 
We met soon afterwards at Mr. Aitkens' bookstore, where I did 
homage to his principles and his pen on the subject of the enslaved 
Africans. He told me it was the first piece he had ever published here. — 
I possess one of his letters written to me from France upon the subject 
of the aboliton of the slave-trade. — Letter to Cheetham, July 17, 1809. 

ANTHONY BENEZET. 

I can with truth and sincerity declare, that I have found amongst 
the negroes as great variety of talents, as among a like number of 
whites ; and I am bold to assert, that the notion entertained by some 



PATRICK HENRY. 11 

that the blacks are inferior in their capacities, is a vulgar prejudice 
founded on the pride or ignorance of their lordly masters, who have 
kept their slaves at such a distance as to be unable to form a right 
judgment of them. 

PATRICK HENRY. 

Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price 
of chains and slavery ? Forbid it, Almighty God ! — I know not, what 
course others may take ; but as for me, give me hberty, or give me 
death ! 

Hanover, January 18, 1773. 

Dear Sir, — I take this opportunity to acknowledge the receipt of 
Anthony Benezet's book against the slave-trade : I thank you for it. 
It is not a little surprising, that the professors of Christianity, whose 
chief excellence consists in softening the human heart ; in cherishing 
and improving its finer feelings, should encourage a practice so totally 
repugnant to the first impressions of right and wrong. What adds to 
the wonder is, that this abominable practice has been introduced in 
the most enlightened ages. Times, that seem to have pretensions to 
boast of high improvements in the arts and sciences, and refined 
morality, have brought into general use, and guarded by many laws, 
a species of violence and tyranny, which our more rude and barbar- 
ous, but more honest ancestors, detested. Is it not amazing, that at 
a time, when the rights of humanity are defined and understood with 
precision, in a country, above all others, fond of liberty, that in such 
an age, and in such a country, we find men professing a religion the 
most humane, mild, gentle and generous, adopting a principle as re- 
pugnant to humanity, as it is inconsistent with the Bible, and destruc- 
tive to liberty? Every thinking, honest man rejects it in speculation 
how few in practice from conscientious motives ! 

Would any one believe that I am master of slaves, of my own pur- 
chase ! I am drawn along by the general inconvenience of living here 
without them. I will not, I cannot justify it. However culpable my 
conduct, I will so far pay my devoir to virtue, as to own the excel- 
lence and rectitude of her precepts, and lament my want of conformity 
to them. 

/ believe a time will come, token anopporkmity will he offered to abolish, 
this lamentable evil. Every thing we can do is to improve it, if it 
happens in our day ; if not, let us transmit to our descendants, 
together with our slaves, a pity for their unhappy lot, and our abhor- 
rence for slavery. If we cannot reduce this wished for reformation 
to practice, let us treat the unhappy victims with lenity. It is the 
furthermost advance we can make towards justice, it is a debt we ov.e 
to the purity of our religion, to show that it is at variance with that 
law, which warrants slavery. I know not where to stop. I could 
say many things on the subject: a serious view of which gives a 
gloomy pers|)ective to future times! — Letter to Robert Pleasants. 

I repeat it again, that it would rejoice my very soul that every one 



12 JAMES MONROE JOHN JAY JOEL BARLOW. 

of my fellow beings was emancipated. As we ought with gratitude 
to admire that decree of heaven, which has numbered us among the 
free, we ought to lament and deplore the necessity of holding our 
fellow men m bondage. — Debate in Virginia Convention. 

JAMES MONROE. 
We have found that this evil has preyed upon the very vitals of the 
Union ; and has been prejudicial to all the states in which it haa 
existed. — Speech in the Virginia Convention. 

JOHN JAY. 

The state of New York is rarely out of my mind or heart, and I 
am often disposed to write much respecting its affairs ; but I have so 
little information as to its present political objects and operations, that 
I am afraid to attempt it. — An excellent law might be made out of the 
Pennsylvania one, for the gradual abolition of slavery. Till America 
comes into this measure, her prayers to heaven will be impious. This 
is a strong expression but it is just. Were I in your legislature, I 
would present a bill for the purpose with great care, and I would never 
cease moving it till it became a law, or I ceased to be a member. I 
believe God governs the world, and I believe it to be a maxim in his 
as in our court, that those who ask for equity ought to do it. — Letter 
from Spain, 1780. 

Our society has been favored with your letter of the first of May 
last, and we are happy that efforts so honorable to your nation are 
making in your country to promote the cause of justice and humanity 
relative to the Africans. That they who know the value of liberty, and 
are blessed with the enjoyment of it, ought not to subject others to 
slavery, is hke most other moral precepts, more generally admitted in 
theory than observed in practice. This will continue to be too much 
the case while men are impelled to action by their passions rather 
than by their reason, and while they are more solicitous to acquire 
wealth" than to do as they would be done by. Hence it is that India 
and Africa experience unmerited oppression from nations who have 
been long distinguished by their attachment to their civil and religious 
liberties, but who have expended not much less blood and treasure in 
violating the rights of others than in defending their own. The United 
States are far from being irreproachable in this respect. It undoubt- 
edly is very inconsistent with their declarations on the subject of 
human rights, to permit a single slave to be found within their juris- 
diction ; and we confess the justice of your strictures on that head. — 
Letter to an English Abolition Society from the Maiiumision Society of 
J^ew York. 

JOEL BARLOW. 

Nor shall I strain 
The powers of pathos in a task so vain. 
As Afric's wrongs to sing, for what avails 
To harp foi you these known familiar tales ; 
To tongue mute misery, and re-rack the soul 
With rnmes oft copied from tha* bloody scroll, 



SAMUEL ADAMS KOSCIUSKO. IS 

Where slavery pens her woes, tho' 'tis but there 
We learn the weight that mortal life can bear. 
The tale might startle still the accustoni'd ear, 
Still shake the nerve that pumps the pearly tear 
Melt every heart and tluough the nation gain 
Full many a voice to break the barbarous chain. 
But why to sympathy for guidance fly, 
(Her aid 's uncertain and of scant supply,) 
When your own self-excited sense affords 
A guide more siire, and every sense accords? 
Where strong self-interest join'd with duty lies, 
Where doing rig:ht demands no sacrifice, 
Where profit, pleasure, life expanding fame 
League their allurements to support the claim. 
'Tis safest there the impleaded cause to trust, 
Men well instructed will be always just. 

Tyrants are never free, and small and great, 
All masters must be tyrants soon or late ; 
So Nature works, and oft the lordling knave 
Turns out at once a tyrant and a slave. 
Struts, cringes, bullies, begs, as courtiers must, 
Makes one a God, another treads in dust, 
Fears all alike, and filches whom he can. 
But knows no equal, finds no friend in man. 

Ah, would you not be slaves with lords and kings? 
Then be not masters, there the danger springs. 

Equality of rigiit is Nature's plan, 
And following nature is the march of man. — 
Enslave her tribes ! What, half mankind emban, 
Then read, expound, enforce the rights of man ! 
Prove plain and clear, how Nature's hand of old, 
Cas't all men equal in her human mould ! 
Their fibres, feelings, reasoning powers the same. 
Like wants await them, like desires inflame ; 
Write, speak, avenge, for ancient sufferings feel, 
Impale each tyrant on their pens of steel, 
Declare how freemen can a world create, 
And slaves and masters ruin every state. — The ColumUad. 

SAMUEL ADAMS. 

"His principles on the subjeet of human rights, carried him far 
beyond the narrow hmits which many loud asserters of their oion liberty 
have prescribed to themselves, to the recognition of this right in every 
human being. One day the wife of Mr. Adams returning home, 
informed her husband that a friend had made her a present of a female 
slave. Mr. Adams repHed in a firm decided manner, ' She may come 
but not as a slave, for a slave cannot live in iny hoKse ; if she comes, she, 
must come free? She came, and took up \\ev free abode with the family 
of this great champion of American liberty, and there she ccmtinued 
free and there she died free." — Rev. Mr. Mien, Uxbridge, Mass. 

KOSCIUSKO. 

General KosciusJco, by his will, placed in the hands of Mr. Jefferson 
a sum exceeding twenty thousand dollars, to be laid out in the purchase 
of young female slaves, who were to be educated and emancipated. 
The laws of Virginia prevented the will of Kosciusko from being 
carriod into effect — Jiurorcu 1S20. 



14 HORATIO GATES ^VII.LlAM PINKNEY. 



HORATIO GATES. 

A few days ago, passed through this town, the Hon. General Gates 
and lady, on their way to take possession of their new and elegant 
seat on the banks of the East river. The general, previous to leaving 
Virginia, summoned his numerous family and slaves about him, and 
amidst their tears of affection and gratitude, gave them their freedom ; 
and what is still better, made provision that their liberty should be a 
blessing to them. — Baltimore paper, Sept. 8, 1 790. 

WILLIAM PINKNEY. 

Sir, — Iniquitous, and most dishonorable to Maryland, is that dreary 
system of partial bondage, which her laws have hitherto supported with 
a solicitude worthy of a better object, and her citizens by their practice 
countenanced. 

Founded in a disgraceful traffic, to which the parent country lent 
her fostering aid, from motives of interest, but which even she would 
have disdained to encourage, had England been the destined mart of 
such inhuman merchandise. Us continuance is as shameful as its origin. 

Wherefore should we confine the edge of censure to our ancestors, 
or those from whom they purchased? Are not we equally guilty l 
They strewed around the seeds of slavery — ice cherish and sustain the 
growth. They introduced the system — ive enlarge, invigorate, and 
confirm it. 

That the dangerous consequences of this system of bondage have 
not as yet been felt, does not prove they never will be. At least the 
experiment has not been sufficiently made to preclude speculation and 
conjecture. To me, sir, nothing for which I have not the evidence of 
my senses is more clear, than that it will one day destroy that rever- 
ence for libertv, which is the vital principle of a republic. 

While a majority of your citizens are accustomed to rule with the 
authority of despots, within particular limits ; while your youth are 
reared in the habit of thinking that the great rights of human nature 
are not so sacred but they may with innocence be trampled on, can it 
be expected that the public mind should glow with that generous ardor 
in the cause of freedom, which can alone save a governmeut like ours 
from the lurking demon of usurpation? Do you not dread the con- 
tamination of princijjle? 

The example of Rome shows that slaves are the proper, natural 
implements of usurpation, and therefore a serious and alarming evil in 
every free comnumity. With much to hope for by a change, and 
nothing to lose, they have no fears of consequences. Despoiled of 
their rights by the acts of government and its citizens, they have no 
checks of pity, or of conscience, but are stimulated by the desire of 
revenge, to spread wide the horrors of desolation, and to subvert the 
foundation of that liberty of which they have nev( r participated, and 
which they have only been pennitttd to envy in others. 

But where slaves are manumitted by government, or in consequence 
of its provisions, the same motives which have attached them to tyrants, 



WARNER MIFFLIN WILLIAM EATON. 16 

when the act of emancipation has flowed from them, would then attach 
them to government. They are then no longer the creatures of despo- 
tism. They are bound by gratitude, as well as by interest, to seek 
the welfare of that country from which they have derived the restoration 
of their plundered rights, and with whose prosperity their own is in- 
separably involved. All apostacy from these principles, which form the 
good citizen, would, under such circiuiistances, be next to impossible. — 
Speech in the Maryland House of Delegates, 1789. 

WARNER :MIFFLIN. 

In a pamphlet, entitled " Observations on the American Revolution," 
published by order of Congress, in 1779, the following sentiments are 
declared to the world, viz : 

"The great principle (of government) is and ever will remain in 
force, that men are by nature free; as accountable to him that made 
them, they must be so; and so long as we have any idea of divine 
justice, we must associate that of human freedom. Whether men 
can part with their liberty, is among the questions which have exercised 
the ablest writers ; but it is concluded on all hands, that the right to be 
free can never be alienated — still less is it practicable for one generation 
to mortgage the privileges of another." 

Humane petitions have been presented to excite in congress benevo- 
lent feelings for the sufferings of our fellow-citizens under cruel bondage 
to the Turks and Algerines, and that the national power and inil-ience 
might be exerted for their relief; with tliis virtuous apphcation 1 unite, 
but lament that any of my countrymen, who are distinguished a 3 men 
eminently qualined for public stations, should be so enslaved by illiberal 
prejudice as to treat with contempt a like solicitude for another class 
of men still more grievously oppressed. 

I profess freely and am willing my profession was known over the 
world, that I feel the calls of humanity as strong towards an African 
in America, as an American in Algiers, both being my brethren ; 
especially as I am informed the Algerine treats his slave with more 
humanity ; and I believe the sin of oppression on the part of the 
American is greatest in the sight of the Father of the family of mankind. 

WARNER MIFFLIN. 

Kent County, Delaware, 2d of 1st mo. 1793. 

WILLIAM EATON. 

[The Tunisians had captured nine hundred and twenty Sardinian 
slaves, of whom General Eaton thus makes mention:] 

"Many have died of grief, and the others linger out a life less 
tolerable than death. Alas — remorse seizes my whole soul when I 
reflect, that this is indeed hut a copy of the very barbarity which my 
eyes liave seen in my own native country. And yet we boast of liberty 
and national justice. How frequently in the southern stc^ces of my 
own country, have I seen weeping mothers leading the guiltless infant 
to the sales with as deep anguisli as if they led them to the slaughter ; 



16 WILLIAM RAY RILEY DE WITT CLINTON. 

and yet felt my bosom tranquil in the view of these a^jgressions on 
dffenceless humanity. But when I see the same enormities practised 
upon beings whose complexions and blood claim kindred with my own, 
I curse the perpetrators, and weep over the wretched victims of their 
rapacity. Indeed, truth and justice demand from me the confession, 
that the Christian slaves among the barbarians of Africa, are treated 
with more humanity than the African slaves aniong professing Chris- 
tians of civilized America ; and yet here sensibility bleeds at every pore 
for the wretches whom fate has doomed to slavery." — Letter to his tcift' 

WILLIAM RAY. 

Are you republicans 1 — away ! 
'Tis blasphemy tlie word to say. 
You talk of frtedoru ? Out for shame! 
Your lips conlaniinate the name. 
How dare you prtle of public good, 
Your hands besniear'd with human blood ? 
How dare you lift those hands to heav'n 
And ask or hope to be forgiven 7 
How dare you breathe the wounded air, 
That wafts to heaven the negro's prayer! 
How dare you tread the conscious earth, 
That gave mankind an equal birth ? 
And while you thus inflict the rod, 
How dare you say there is a God 
That will, in justice, from the skies, 
Hear and avenge his creature's cries? 
'• Slaves to be sold," hark, what a sound T 
Ye give America a wound, 
A scar, a stigma of disgrace. 
Which you nor time can e'er efface , 
And prove, of nations yet unborn, 
The curse, the hatred, and the scorn ! 

The Horrors of Slavery, or Tars of THpoli 

CAPTAIN RILEY. 

Strange as it may seem to the philanthropist, my free and proud- 
spirited countrymen still hold a million and a half of human beings 
in the most ci uel bonds of slavery ; who are kept at hard labor, and 
smarting unner the lash of inhuman mercenary drivers; in many 
instances enduring the miseries of hunger, thirst, imprisonment, cold, 
nakedness, and even tortures. This is no picture of the imagination. 
Foi the honor of human nature, I wish likenesses were no where to be 
found! I myself have witnessed such scenes in different parts ot my 
own country ; and the bare recollection of them now chills my blood 
with horror. — RUey''s J^arrative. 

DE WITT CLINTON. 

During the period of his legislative career 0797,) a latere portion of 
his attention was bestowed on the prot, ctiou of the public health, the 
promotion of agriculture, manufactures, and the arts, the gradual 
abolition of slavery, &c 

The record of the proceedings of the senate of New York for tho 



DANIEL D. TOMKINS — ANDREW JACKSON. 17 

sessions of 1809, 1810, and 1811, exhibits proofs of Mr. Clinton's 
great usefulness. Under his auspices, the New York Historical 
Society was uicorporated — the Orphan Asylum and Free School So- 
cieties were fostered and encouraged. He introduced laws to prevent 
kidnapping, or the further introduction of slaves, and to punish those 
who should treat tliem inhumanly. — De Witt Clintmi's Life in Dela- 
j)laine''s Repository. 

DANIEL D. TOMKINS. 

To devise the means for the gradual and ultimate extermination 
from amongst us of slavery, that reproach of a free people, is a work 
worthy the representatives of a {)oi:?hed and enlightened nation. 

Allow me here to observe, that ihc law which authorizes the trans- 
portation of slaves convicted of otienccs, is very generally considered 
mipolitic and unjust. Impolitic, because it cherishes inducements in 
the master, to whom alone these unfortunate creatures can look for 
friendship and protection, to aggravate, to tempt, or to entrap the slave 
into an error — to operate upon his ignorance or his fears, to confess a 
charge, or to withhold from him the means of employing counsel for 
defence, or of establishing a reputation which is frequently the only 
shield against a criminal allegation. This inducement will l)e pecu- 
liarly strong, where the slave is of that description, the sale of which 
is prohibited ; for a conviction will enable the master to evade that 
restriction, and to make a lucrative disposition of what might other- 
wise be a burthen to him. It is unjust, because transportation is added 
to the full sentence which may be pronounced upon others. To inflict 
less punishment for the crimes of those who have always breathed the 
air of freedom, vAio have been benefited by polished society, and by 
literary, moral, and religious instruction and example, than to the pas- 
sions and frailities of the poor, untutored, unrefined, and unfortunate 
victiTus of slavery, is a palpable inversion of a precept of our blessed 
Redeemer. The sen^ant "that knew not, and did commit things 
worhty of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes ; for unto whom- 
soever much is given, of him shall be much required." — Speech to JVeiw 
York Legislature, Jan. 8, 1812, 

ANDREW JACKSON. 

[On December, 18, 1814, Genral Jackson issued in the French 
language the folloxoing.] 

Address to the Free People of Color. 
Soldiers ! When on the banks of the Mobile, I called you to take 
up arms, inviting you to partake the perils and glory of your white 
fellow-citizens, I expected much from you ; for I was not ignorant 
that you possessed qualities most formidable to an invading enemy. 
I knew with what fortitude you could endure hunger and thirst, and 
all the fatigues of a campaign. I knew well how you loved your 
native country, and that you had, as well as ourselves, to defend 
what man holds most dear — his parents, relations, wife, childreo, and 

2* 



18 JOSEPH STORY DANIEL WEBSTER. 

property. You have done more than I expected. In addition to the 
previous qualities I before knew you to possess, I found, moreover, 
among you a noble enthusiasm, which leads to the performance of 
great things. 

Soldiers ! The President of the United States shall hear how 
praiseworthy was your conduct in the hour of danger, and the Repre- 
sentatives of the American people will, I doubt not, give you the 
praise your exploits entitle you to. Your general anticipates them in 
applauding your noble ardor. 

The enemy approaches; his vessels cover our lakes; our brave 
citizens are united, and all contention has ceased among them. Their 
only dispute is who shall win the prize of valor or who the most glory, 
its noblest reward. 

By Order. 

THOMAS BUTLER, Aid-de-camp. 

JOSEPH STORY. 

The President of the United States, is also authorized to employ 
our armed vessels and revenue cutters to cruise on the seas for the 
purpose of arresting all vessels and persons engaged in this traffic in 
violation of our laws ; and bounties as well as a moiety of the cap>- 
tured property are given to the captors to stimulate them in the dis- 
charge of their duty. 

Under these circumstances, it might well be supposed that the slave- 
trade would in practice, be extinguished — that virtuous men would by 
their abhorrence, stay its polluted march, and wicked men would be 
overawed by its potent punishment. But unfortunately the case is far 
otherwise. We have but too many melancholy proofs from unques- 
tionable sources, that it is still carried on with all the implacable fero- 
city and insatiable rapacity of former times. Avarice has grown more 
subtle in its evasion ; and watches and seizes its prey with an appetite 
quickened, rather tlian suppressed, by its guilty vigils. American 
citizens are steeped up to their very mouths (I scarcely use too bold a 
figure) in this stream of iniquity. They throng the coast of Alricct 
under the stained flags of Spain and Portugal, sometimes selling 
abroad " their cargoes of despair," and sometimes bringing them into 
Bome of our southern ports, and there under the forms of the law de- 
feating the purposes of the law itself, and legalizins their inhuman but 
profitable adventures. I wish I could say that New England and 
New England men were free from this deep pollution. But there is 
some reason, to believe, that they who drive a loathsome traffic, "and 
buy the muscles and the bones of njen," are to be found here also. It is 
to be hoped the number is small ; but our cheeks may well burn witli 
shame while a solitary case is permitted to go unpunished. — From 
Jud'^e Stonfs Chtrge to the Grand Jury of the U. S. Circuit Court, in 
Portsmouth, .V. //., May Term, 1820. 

DANIEL WEBSTER. 

If there be, within the extent of our knowledge and influence, any 
participation in tlus traffic in slaves, let us pledge ourselves upon thio 



N. Y. LEGISLATURE W. WIRT J. R.VNDOLPH. 19 

Rock of Plymouth, to extirpate and destroy it. It id not fit that the 
land of the pilgrims should bear the shame longer. Let that spot be 
purified, or let it be set aside from the Christian world ; let it be put 
out of the circle of human sympatliies and human regards; and let 
civilized men henceforth have no communion with it. 

I invoke those who fill the seats of justice, and all M'ho minister at 
her altar, that they exercise the wholesome and necessary severity of 
the law. I invoke the ministers of our religion, that they proclaim its 
denunciation of those crimes, and add its solemn sanction to the 
authority of human laws. If the pulpit be silent, whenever or wher- 
ever there iriay be a sinner, bloody with this guilt, witliin the hearing 
of its voice, the pulpit is false to its trust. 

NEW YORK LEGISLATURE. 

On the 20th day of January, 1820, the following preamble and re- 
solutions were taken up in the senate (having passed the house) of the 
New- York Legislature, and unanimously passed. [Mr. Van Buren, 
who was then in the senate of that state, voted in favor of them.] 

Whereas, the inhibiting the further extension of slavery in the 
United States, is a subject of deep concern to the people of this state : 
and whereas, we consider slavery as an evil much to be deplored, and 
that every constitutional barrier should be interposed to prevent its- 
further extension ; and the constitution of the United States clearly 
gives congress the right to require new^ states, not comprised w^ithin 
the original boundary of the United States, to make the prohibition of 
slavery a condition of their admission into the Union : Therefore, 

Resolved, (if the honorable senate concur therein) That our senators 
be instructed, and our n^embers of congress be requested, to oppose 
the admission as a state into the Union, of aiiy territory not comprised 
as aforesaid, ^vithout making the prohibition of slavery therein au in- 
dispensable condition of admission. 

WILLIAM WIRT. 

Slavery was contrary to the laws of nature and of nations and that 
the law of South Carolina, concerning seizing colored seamen, M-as 
unconstitutional. + + * ■■■.■ Last and lowest, a /ecitZu??i of beings 
calle' overseers — the most abject, degraded, unprincipled race — 
always cap in hand to the dons who employ them, and furnishing 
materials for their pride, insolence, and love of dominion. — Life of 
Patrick Henry. 

JOHN RANDOLPH. 

Dissipation, as well as poicer or prosperity hardens the heart, but 
avarice deadens it to every feeling, but the thirst for riches. Avarice 
alone could have produced the slave-trade. Avarice alone can drive, 
as it do.'S drive, this infernal traffic, and the wretched victims, like so 
many posthorses, whipped to death in a mail coach. Ambition has 
its cover-sluts, in the pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war; 
but where are the tiophie^ of avance ? The handcuff, the Kianacl^ 



20 THOMAS JEFFERSON RANDOLPH. 

and the blood-stained cowhide ! What man is worse received i7i society 
for being a hard master ? Who denies the hand of a sister or daughter 
to s}(ch monsters? — nay, they have even appeared in "the abused 
shape of the vilest of women." I say nothing of India or Amboyna — 
of Cortez, or Pizarro. — Southern Literary Messenger. 

[In March, 1816, John Randolph submitted the following resolution 
to the House of Representatives:] "Resolved, That a committee be 
appointed, to inquire into the existence of an inhuman and illegal 
traffic of slaves, carried on in and through the District of Columbia, 
and to report whether any, and M'hat measures are necessary for put- 
ting a stop to the same." 

" Virginia is so impoverished by the system of slavery, that the 
tables will sooner or later be turned, and the slaves will advertise for 
runaway masters." 

" Sir, I neither envy the head nor the heart of that man from the 
North, who rises here to defend slavery upon principle." — Rebuke of 
Edward Everett, in Congress, 1820. 

" 3. I have upwards of two thousand pounds sterlincr in the handa 
of Baring, Brothers & Co., of London^ and upwards of one thousand 

founds of like money in the hands of Gowan and Marx ; this money 
leave to my executor, Wm. Leigh, as a fund for carrying into execu- 
tion my will respecting my slaves." 

" I give to my slaves their freedom, to which my conscience tells me 
they a;-e justly entitled. It has a long time been a matter of the deepest 
regret to me, that the circumstances under which I inherited them, and 
the obstacles thrown in the way by the laws of the land, have prevented 
my emancipating them in my lifetime, which it is my full intention to 
do in case I can accomplish it" 

The codicil goes on to make provision for his servants John and 
wife, and for Juba and his wife, and another woman : — "And I 
hereby request (says he) the General Assembly (the only request that 
I ever preterred to them,) to let the above named and such other of my 
old and faithful slaves as desire it, to remain in Virginia ; recommend- 
ing them each and all to the care of my said executor, who I know is 
too wise, just and humane to send them to Liberia, or any other place 
in Africa or the West Indies."— Cod. Jan. 1826. 

THOMAS JEFFERSON RANDOLPH. 

I agree with gentlemen m the necessity of arming the state for 
internal defence. I will unite with them in any eflfort to restore con- 
fidence to the public mrnd, and to conduce to the sense of the safety 
of our wives, and our children. Yet sir, I must ask, upon whom is 
to fall the burden of this defence? not upon the lordly masters of their 
hundred slaves, who will never turn out except to retire with their 
families when danger threatens. No, sir; it is to fall upon the less 
wealthy class of our citizens ; chiefly upon the yion-slavelwltUr. I liave 
known patrols turned out where there was not a slariholder among them, 
and this is the practice o^ the coimtry. I have slept in times of alarm 
quietly in bed, withov.t having a thought of care, while these indi- 



GOVERNOR RANDOLPH. <2l 

viduals, owning none of this property themselves, were patrolling 
under a compulsory process, for a pittance of seventy-five cents per 
twelve hours, the very curtilage of my house, and guarding that pro- 
perty, which was alike dangerous to them and myself. After all, this 
IS b'jt an expedient. As this population becomes more numerous, it 
becomes less productive. Your guard must be increased, until finally 
its profits will not pay for the expense of its subjection. Slavery has 
the effect of lessening the free population o^'a country. 

The gentlemen has spoken of the increase of the female slaves 
being a part of the profit ; it is admitted ; but no great evil can be 
averted, no good attained, without some inconvenience. It may be 
questioned, how far it is desirable to foster and encourage this branch 
of profit. It 's a practice, and an increasing practice in parts of Vir- 
ginia, to rear slaves for market. How can an honorable mind, a patriot, 
and a lover of his country, bear to see this ancient dominion, rendered 
illustrious by the noble devotion and patriotism of her sons in the 
cauc . of liberty, converted in one grand menagerie, where men are to 
be reared for the market, like oxen for the shambles. Is it better, is it 
not worse, than the slave-trade ; that trade which enhsted the labor 
of the good and wise of every creed, and every clime, to abolish it ? 
The trader receives the slave, a stranger in language, aspect and man- 
ner, from the me:-chant who has brought '^•im from the interior. The 
ties of father, mother, husband and child', have all been rent in twain ; 
before he receives him, his soul has become callous. But here, sir, 
individuals, whom the master has known from infancy, whom he has 
seen sporting in the innocent gambols of childhood, who have been 
accustomed to look to him for protection, he tears from the mother's 
arms, and sells into a strange country, among strange people, subject 
to cruel taskmasters. 

He has attempted to justify slavery here, because it exists in Africa, 
and has stated that it exists all over the world. Upon the same prin- 
ciple, he could justify Mahometism, with its plurality of wives, petty 
wars for plunder, robbery and murder, or any other of the abominations 
and enormities of savage tribes. Does slavery exist in any part of 
civilized Europe ? No sir, in no part of it. — Speech in the Virginia 
Legislature, 

GOVERNOR RANDOLPH. 

The deplorable error of our ancestors in copying a civil institution 
from savage Africa, has affixed upon their posterity a depressing bur- 
den, which nothing but the extraordinary benefits conferred by our 
happy climate, could have enabled us to support. We have been far 
outstripped by states, to whom nature has been far less bountiful. It 
is painful to consider what might have b'^en, under other circumstances, 
the amount of general wealth in Virginia, or the whole sum of com- 
fortable subsistence and happiness possessed by all her inhabitants.— 
Addr^s to the Legislature of Virginia^ in 1820. 



22 HENRY CLAY JOHN q,. ADAMS. 



HENRY CLAY. 

As a mere laborer, the slave fetls that he toils for his master, and 
not for himself; that the laws do not recognise his capacity to acquire 
and hold property, which depends altogether upon the pleasure of his 
proprietor, and that all the fruits of his exertions are reaped by others. 
He knows that, whfther sick or well, in times of scarcity or abun- 
dance, his master is bound to provide for him by the all-powerful influ- 
ence of selfinterest. He is generally, therefore, indifl^'rent to the 
adverse or prosperous fortunes of his master, being contented if he can 
escape his displeasure or chastisement, by a careless and slovenly 
performance of his duties. 

That labor is best, in which the laborer knows that he will derive 
the profits of his industry, and his employment depends upon his dili- 
gence, and his reward upon his assiduity. He then has every motive 
to excite him to exertion, and to animate him in perseverance. He 
knows that if he is treated badly, he can exchange his employer for 
one who will better estimate his service ; and that whatever he earns 
is his, to be distributed by himself as he pleases, among his wife and 
children, and friends, or enjoyed by himself. In a word, he feels that 
he is a free agent, with rights, and privileges, and sensibilities. 

Wherever the option exists to employ, at an equal hire, free or slave 
labor, the former will be decidedly preferred, for the reasons already 
assigned. It is more capable, more diligent, more faithful, and in 
every respect more worthy of confidence. 

It is believed that nowhere in the farming portion of the United 
States would slave labor be generally employed, if the proprietor were 
not tempted to raise slaves by the high price of the southern market, 
which keeps it up in his own. 

[Speaking of an attempt more than thirty-five years ago, to adopt 
gradual emancipation in Kentucky, Mr. Clay says :] 

We were overpowered by numbers, and submitted to the decision 
of the majority with the ^race which the minority, in a republic, should 
ever yield to such a decision. I have nevertheless never ceased, and 
never shall cease, to regret a decision, the effects of which have been, 
to place us in the rear of our neighbors, who are exempt from slavery, i-n 
the state of agriculture, the progress of manufactures, the advance of 
improvement, and the general prosperity of society. — Address before the 
Colonization Society. 

JOHN aUINCY ADAMS. 

Not three days since, Mr. Clayton, of Georgia, called that species 
of population (viz. slaves) the machinery of the Soutii. Now that 
machinery had twenty odd representatives* in that hall, — not elected 
by the machinery, but by those who owned it. And if he slic.uld go 
back to the history of this government from its foundation, it would bo 
easy to prove that its decisions had been aflectcd, in general by less 

[♦ There are now twer.ty-five odd representatives— that is^iepresentative* 
of slaves] 



DUFF GREEN JOSEPH RITNEH. 23 

majorities than that. Nay, he might go further, and insist that that 
very representation had ever been, in fact, the ruling power of this 
government. 

The history of the Union has afforded a continual proof that this 
representation of property, which they enjoy, as well in the election 
of President and Vice President of the tJnited States, as upon the 
floor of the House of Representatives, has secured to the slaveholding 
states the entire control of the national policy, and, almost without 
exception, the possession of the highest executive office of the Union. 
Always united in the purpose of regulating the affairs of the whole 
Union by the standard of the slaveholding interest, their disproportion- 
ate numbers in the electoral colleges have enabled them, in ten out of 
twelve quadriennial elections, to confer the Chief Magistracy upon one 
of their own citizens. Their suffrages at every election, without ex- 
ception, have been almost exclusively confined to a candidate of their 
own caste. — Speech in Congress, Feb. 4, 1833. 

GENERAL DUFF GREEN. 

We are of those who believe the South has nothing to fear from a 
servile war. We do not believe that the abolitionists intend, nor 
could they, if they would, excite the slaves to insurrection. The dan- 
ger of this is remote. We believe that we have most to fear from 
the organized action upon the consciences and fears of slaveholders 
themselves ; from the insinuations of their dangerous heresies into our 
schools, our pulpits, and our domestic circles. It is only by alarming 
the consciences of the weak and feeble, and diffusing among our own 
people a morbid sensibility on the question of slavery, that the aboli- 
tionists can accomplish their object. Preparatory to this, they are now 
laboring to saturate the non-slaveholding states with the belief that 
slavery is a sin against God; that the " national compact" involves 
the non-slaveholders in that sin ; and that it is their duty to toil and 
suffer, that our country may be delivered from what they term its 
blackest stain, its foulest reproach, its deadliest curse. — Southern 
Revieio. 

JOSEPH RITNER. 

Last, but worst of all, came the base bowing of the knee to the dark 
spirit of slavery. 

For the preservation of this last and most cherished article of our 
national political creed, the sacrifice of which has not yet been com- 
pleted, it is our duty to make all possible effort. 

To ascertain what have been, nay, what are the doctrines of the 
people, of this state, on the subject of domestic slavery, reference need 
only be made to the statute book and journals of the legislature. They 
will be found imprinted in letters of light upon almost every pase. In 
1, Smith's Laws, 493, is ibund an "act for the gradual abolition of 
slavery in Pennsylvania," with a preamble which should be printed 
in letters of gold. This is the first act of the kind passed in any part 
of the Union, and was nobly put forth to the world, in the year 1780, 



24 JOSEPH RITNER. 

in the midst of tho struggle for national freedom. This just doctrine 
was, through a long course of years, adhered to and perfected, till 
slavery ceased in our state. And finally, m 1827, the followinj; open 
avowil of the state doctrine, was prefaced to the act " to prevent cer- 
tain abuses of the laws relative to fugitives from labor." " The traffic 
in slaves, now abhorred by all the civilized world, ought not in the 
slightest degree to be tolerated in the state of Pennsylvania." — Parri' 
pfilet Lairs, page 485. 

Not only has Pennsylvania thus expelled the evil from her own bor- 
ders, b)it she has on all proper occasions, endeavored to suard her 
younger sisters from the pollution. On ttie 19th of December, 1819, 
the following lansuase was unanimously made use of by the legisla- 
ture, and approved of by the governor, on the question of admitting 
new states into the Union, with the right of holding slaves. 

" That the senators and representatives of this state, in the congress 
of the United States, be, and they are hereby requested to vote against 
the admission of any territory as a state into the Union, unless the 
further introduction of slavery or involimtary ser\'itude, except for the 
punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly con- 
victed, shall be prohibited, and all children born within the said terri- 
tory after its admission into the Union as a state, shall be fiee, but 
may be held to service until the age of twenty-five years." 

The preamble to this resolution, too long to be cited at large, is 
worthy ofall consideration at the present juncture. 

On the much discussed question of slavery in the District of Colum- 
bia, there never has been any thing like hesitation. On the 23d of 
January, 1819, the legislature passed a resolution instructing our 
representatives in congress to advocate the passage of a law tor its 
abolition ; and the voice of public opinion, as expressed through the 
press, at meetings, and in petitions, has been unchanging on the 
subject. 

These tenets, then, viz : opposition to slavery at home, which, by 
the blessing of Providence, has been rendered ef!('ctual ; opposition 
to the admission into the Uni-on of new slaveholding states ; and 
opposition to slavery in the District of Columbia, the very hearth and 
domestic abode of the national honor — have ever been, and are the 
cherished doctrines of our state. Let us fellow-citizens, stand by and 
maintain them unshrinkinsly and fearlessly. While we admit and 
scrupulously respect the constitutional rights of other states, on this 
momentous subject, let us not, either by f(\iror interest, be driven from 
aught of that s[)itit of independence and veneration for freedom, which 
has ever charaeterized our commonwealth. 

Above all, let us never yield up the risht of free discussion of any 
evil which may arise in the land or any part of it ; convinced that the 
moment we do so, the bond of union is broken. For the union being 
a voluntary compact to continue toeether for certain specified purposes, 
the instant one portion of it succeeds in imposing terms and dictating 
conditions upon another, not found in the contract, the relation between 
them chajiges, and that \vhich was union becomes subjection.— %/V/m- 



TEXAS AND MEXICO. 25 

TEXAS AND MEXICO. 

But the prime cause, and the real ohject of this war, '-e not dis- 
tinctly understood by a large portion of the hone«t, disinterested, and 
well-meaning citizens of the Uni*ed States. I'htir means of obtain- 
ing coriect information upon the subject have been necessarily limited; 
and many of them have been deceived and misled by the misrepresen- 
tations of those concerned in it, and especially by hireling writers of the 
newspaper press. Tht-y have been induced to believe that the in- 
habitants of Texas were engaged in a legitimate contest for the mainte- 
nance of the sacred principles of liberty, and ihe natural, inalienable 
rights of man : — whereas, the motives of its instigators, and their chief 
incentives to action, have been, from the commencement, of a directly 
opposite character and tendency. It is susceptible of the clearest demon/- 
stration, that the immediate cause, and the leading object of this contest^ 
originated in a settled design, among the slaveholders of this coxintry, 
{with land speculators and slave-traders,) to lorest the '-arge and valuable 
territory of Texas from the Mexican Republic, in order to re-establish the 
SYsTEvl OF SLAVERY; to open a vast and profitable SLAVE 
MARKET therein; and ultimately to annex it to the United States. 
And further, it is evident — nay, it is very generally acknowledged — 
that the insurrectionists are principally citizens oi" ihe United States, 
who have proceeded thither for the purpose of revolutionizing the 
country ; and that they are dependant upon this nation, for both the 
physiral and pecuniary means, tocarry the design into efH'ct. Whether 
the national legislature will lend its aid to this nio^t unwarrantable, 
agjiressive attempt, will depend on tl e VOICE OF THE PEOPLE, 
expressed in tiieir primary assemb..es, by their petitions and through 
the ballot boxes. 

The land speculations, aforesaid, have extended to most of the cities 
and villacres of the United States, the British colonies in America, and 
the settlements of foreigners in all the eastern parts of Mexico. All 
concerned in them are aware that a change in the government of the 
country must take place, if their claims should ever be legalized. 

The advocates of slavery, in onr southern states and elsewhere, 
want more land on this continent suitable for the culture of sugar and 
cotton : and if Texas, with the adjoining portions of Tamauiipas, 
Coahuila, Chihuahua, and Santa Fe, east of the Rio Bravo del Norte, 
can be wrested from the Mexican government, room will be afforded 
for the redundant slave population in the United States, even to a 
remote period of time. 

Such are the motives for action — such the combination of interests 
— such the organization, sources of influence, and foundation of 
authority, upon which the present Texas Insurrection rests. The resi- 
dent colonists compose but a small fraction of the party concerned in 
ft. The standard of revolt was raised as soon as it was clearly ascer- 
tained that slavery could not be perpetuated, nor the illegal specula 
tionsin land continued, under the g-<wemmenf of the Mexican Republic 
The Mexican authorities were charged with acts of oppression, while 
tb» trw causes of tb« tewalt^-^ktB motiresand dasigQf oithe insurgents 



26 BENJAMIN LUNDY. 

— were studiously concealed from the public view. Influential slave- 
holders are contributing money, equipping troops, and marching to 
the scene of conflict. The land speculators are fitting out expeditions 
from New York and New Orleans, with men, munitions of war, pro- 
visions, kc, to promote the object. The Independence of Texas is 
declared, and the system of slavery, as well as the slave-trade (with 
the United States,) is fully recognized by the government they have 
set up. Commissioners are sent from the colonies and agents are 
appointed here, to make formal application, enlist the sympathies of 
our citizens, and solicit aid in every way that it can be furnished. The 
hireling presses are aciively engaged in promoting the success of their 
efforts, by misrepresenting the character of the Mexicans, issuing 
inflammatory appeals, and u.-'ging forward the ignorant, the unsus- 
pecting, the adventurous, and the unprincipled, to a participation in 
the struggle. 

Under the erroneous construction of the treaty with Mexico, General 
Gaines was authorized to cross the boundary line with liis army ; to 
march seventy miles into the Mexican territory ; and to occupy the 
military post of Nacogdoches, in case he should judge it expedient in 
order to guard against Indian depredations ! And further ; he was 
likewise authorized to call upon the governors of several of the south- 
western states for an additional number of troops, should he consider it 
necessary. 

From the. Pensnr.nlo Gazette. 

"About the middle of last month, General Gaines sent an officer of the 
United States army into Texas to reclaim some deserters. lie found them 
already enlisted in the Texian service to the number of two hundred. Tliey still 
wore the unifonn of our army, but refused, of course, to return. The com- 
mander of the Texian forces was applied to, to enforce their return ; but his 
only reply was, that the soldiers might go, but he had no authority to send 
them back. This is a new view of our Texian relations." 

The following decrees and ordinances are translated from an official 
compilation by authority of the government of Mexico. 

Extract from the Law of October I4th, 1823. 
Article 21. Foreigners who bring slaves with them, shall obey the 
Laws established upon the matter, or which shall hereafter be estab- 
lished. 

Decree of jult 13, 1824. 
Prohibition of the Commerce and Traffic in Slaves. 
The Sovereign General Constituent Congress of the United Mexi- 
can States has held it right to decree the following: 

1. The commerce and traffic in slaves, proceeding from whatever 
power, and iinUcr whatever flag, is forever prohibited, within the terri- 
tories of the United Mexican States. 

2. The slaves, who may be introduced contrary to the tenor of the 
preceding article, shall remain free is consequence c^ treading tlte 
Mexican (khL 



BENJAMIN LUNDY. 27 

3. Every vessel, whether national or foreign, in which slaves mav 
be transported and introduced into the Mexican territories, shall be 
confiscated with the rest of its cargo — and the owner, purchaser, cap- 
tain, master, and pilot, shall suffer the punishment of ten years' con- 
finement. 

The Constitution of Coahuila and Texas, promulgated on the 11th 
of March, 1827, also contains this important article : 

" 13. In this state no person shall be born a slave after this Consti- 
tution is published in the capital of each district, and six months there- 
after, neither will the introduction of slaves be permitted under any 
pretext." 

[Translated from page 149, Vol. V, Mexican Laws.] 

Decree of President Guerrero. 

Abolition of Slavery. 

The President of the United Mexican States, to the inhabitants of 
the Republic — 

Be it known : That in the year 1829, being desirous of signalizing 
the anniversary of our Independence by an act of national Justice and 
Beneficence, which may contribute to the strength and support of such 
inestimable welfare, as to secure more and more the public tranquility, 
and reinstate an unfortunate portion of our inhabitants in the sacred 
rights granted them by nature, and may be protected by the nation, 
under wise and just laws, according to the provision in article 30 of the 
Constitutive act ; availing myself of the extraordinary faculties granted 
me, I have thought proper to decree : 

1. That slavery be exterminated in the republic. 

2. Consequently those are free, who, up to this day, have been 
looked upon as slaves. 

3. Whenever the circumstances of the public treasury will allow it, 
the owners of slaves shall be indemnified, in the manner which the 
laws shall provide. 

Mexico, 15th Sept. 1829, A. D. 

JOSE MARIA de BOCANEGRA. 

[Translation of part of the law of April 6th, 1830, prohibiting the 
migration of citizens of the United States to Texas.] 

Art. 9. On the northern frontier, the entrance of foreigners shall be 
prohibited, under all pretexts whatever, unless they be furnished with 
passports, signed by the agents of the republic, at the places whence 
they proceed. 

Aht. 10. There shall be no variation with regard to the colonies 
already established, nor with regard to the slaves that may be in them ; 
but the general government, or the particular state government, shaU 
take care, under the strictest responsibility, that the colonization laws b* 
obeyed, and that no more slates be introduced. 



28 BENJAMIN LUNDT, 



Colonization Laws of Coahuila and Texas. 

Art. 3r. The new s.^ttlers, in regard to the introduction of slaves, 
shall be subject to laivs which now exist, and ichich shall hereafter be 
made on the sut'ject. 

Art. 36. The servants and laborers which, in future, foreign colonists 
shall introduce, shall not, by force of any contract xchatever, remain bound 
to their service a longer space of time than ten years. 

Given in the city of Leona Vicario, 28th April, 1832. 

JOSE JESUS GRANDE, President, 

In the course of my observations, I have several tinius asserted, that 
it was the intention of the insurrertionists to establish and perpetuate 
the system of slavery, by ^Constitutional''' provision. In proof of this, 
I now quote several paragraphs from the "constitution" which they 
lately adopted. This extract is taken from that part under the head 
of" General Provisions,^^ and embraces all that relates to slavery. 

Texas Constitution. 

Sec. 8. All persons who shall leave the country for the purpose of 
evading a participation in the present struggle, or shall refuse to partici' 
pate in it, or shall give aid or assistance to the present enemy, shall 
forfeit all rights to citizenship, and such lands as they may hold, in th4 
republic. 

Sec. 9. All persona of color, v»^ho were slaves for life previous to 
their emigration to Texas, and who are noio held in bondage, shall 
remain in the like state of servitude, provided the said slave shall be the 
bona fide property of the person so holding said slave as aforesaid. 
Congress shall pass no laws to prohibit emigrants from the United States 
of Jlmerica fron bringing their slaves into the republic with them, and 
holding tlvnn by the same tenure by wliich such slaves were held in 
the United States ; nor shall congress have the power to emancipate 
slaves ; nor shall any slaveholder be allowed to emancipate his or her slave 
or slaves, without the consent of congress, unless he or she shall send his 
or her slave or slaves without the limits of the republic. No free 
person of African descent, oiiher in whole or in part, shall be permitted 
to reside permanently in the republic, without the consent of con ^ress ; 
and the importation or admission of Africans or negroes ini.j this 
republic, exceptin'jf from the United States of America, is for ever 
prohibited and declared to be piracy. 

Sec 10. All person;*, {Africans, and the de-^cendauts of.lfricans, and 
I I'liaus excepteJ,) who w»;re residiinj: in Texas on the day of the Decla- 
ration of [nd'-prndenro, [u great portion of the native .Mexican citizens 
are, of cou'Se, exctu led,] shall be considered citizens of the republic, 
aid entitl'd to all the privileges of such. All citizens now living in 
Texas, who h ive not rf ctived their portion of land in like manner as 
colonsts, shall be entitled to their land in the f)llowing proportion and 
manner: Every head of a family shall be entitled to one league and 
"labor" of land, and every single man of the age of seventeen and 
upwards, shall be entitled to one third part of one feague of land. 



BENJAMIN LUNDY. 29 

The period has indeed arrived— THE CRISIS IS NOW— when 
the wise, the virtuous, the patriotic, the philanthropic of this nation, 
must examine, and reflect, and deeply ponder the momentous subject 
under consideration. Already we see the newspaper press in some 
of the free states, openly advocating; the system of slavery, with all its 
outrages and abominations. Individuals occupying influential stations 
in the community at large, also countenance and encouiage it, and 
even instigate the vile rabble to oppose, maltreat, and trample on the 
necks of those who dare to plead the cause of the oppressed. At the 
ensuing session of our national congress, the great battle is to be fought, 
that must decide the question now at issue, and perhaps even seal the 
fate of this republic. The senators and representatives of the people 
will then be called on to sanction the independence of Texas, and also, 
to provide for its admission, as a SLAVEHOLDING STATE, into 
this Union. These measures will positively be proposed, in case the 
Mexican government fails to suppress the insurrection very soon, and 
to recover the actual possession of the territory. A few of our most 
eminent statesmen will resist the proposition with energy and zeal ; 
but unless the PUBLIC VOICE be raised against the unhallowed 
proceeding, and the sentiments of the people be most unequivocally 
expressed in the loudest tones of disapprobation, they will be unable 
to withstand the influence and power of their antaoonists. Arouse, 
then ! and let your voice be heard through your primary assemblies, 
your legislative halls, and the columns of the periodical press, in every 
section of your country I 

. Citizens of the United States! — Sons of the Pilgrims, and disciples 
of Wesley and Penn ! — Coadjutors and pupils of Washington, Jeffer- 
son, and Franklin ! — Advocates of freedom and the sacred ^^Hghts of 
man .'" — Will you longer shut your eyes, and slumber in apathy, while 
the demon of oppression is thus stalking over the plains consecrated 
to the genius of liberty, and fertilized by the blood of her numerous 
martyrs? — Will you permit the authors of this gigantic project of 
national aggression, interminable slavery, and Heaven-daring injustice, 
to perfect their diabolical schemes through your supineness, or with 
the sanction of your acquiescence ? If they succeed in the accomplish- 
ment of their object, where will be your guarantee for the liberty which 
5'ou, yourselves enjoy ? When the advocates of slavery shall obtain 
the balance of power in tliis confederation ; when they shall have 
corrupted a few more of the aspirants to office among you, and opened 
an illimitable field for the operations of your heartless land-jobbers and 
slave-merchants, (to secure their influence in effecting the unholy 
purposes of their ambition,) how long will you be able to resist the 
encroachments of their tyrannical influence, or prevent them from 
usurping and exercising authority over you ? ARISE IN THE 
MAJESTY OF MORAL POWER, and place the seal of condem- 
nation upon this flagrant violation of national laws, of human rights, 
and the eternal, immutable principles of justice. — National Enquif^ 
of Philadelphia. 



-^/*- 



90 JOHN Q. ADAM&. 



JOHN a. ADAMS. 



During the late war with Great Britain, the nnilitary and naval com- 
manders^of that nation, issued procUinations inviting the slaves to 
repair to their standards, with promises of freedom and of settlement 
in some of the British colonial establishments. This, surely, was an 
interference with the institution of slavery in the states. By the treaty 
of peace, Great Britain stipulated to evacuate all the forts and places 
in the United States, without carrying away any slaves. If the 
government of the United States had no authority to mterfere, in any 
way, with the institution of slavery in tlie states, they would not have 
had tl)e authority to require this stipulation. It is well known that 
this enga cement was not fulfilled by the British naval and military 
conmanders ; that, on the contrary, they did carry away all the slaves 
whom they had induced to join them, and that the British government 
inflexibily refused to restore any of them to their masters; tliat a claim 
of indemnity was consequently instituted in behalf of the owners of the 
slaves, and was successfully maintained. All that series of transactions 
was an interference by congress with the institution of slavery in the 
states in one way — in the way of protection and support. It was by 
the institution oi slavery alone, that the restitution of slaves enticed by 
proclamations into the British service could be claimed as properly. 
feut for the institution of slavery, th^^ British commanders could neither 
have allured them to their standard, nor restored them otherwise than 
as liberated prisoners of war. But for the institution of slavery, there 
could have been no stipulation that they should not be carried away 
as property, nor any claim of indemnity for the violation of that 
ensagement. 

But the war power of congress over the institution of slavery in the 
states is yet far more extensive. Suppose the case of a servile war, 
complicated, as to some extent it is even now, with an Indian war; 
suppose congress were called to raise armies ; to supply money from 
the whole Union to suppress a servile insurrection : would they have 
no authority to interfere with the institution of slavery? The issue of 
a servile war may be disastrous. By war, the slave may emancipate 
himself; it may become necessary for the master to recognise his 
emancipation, by a treaty of peace ;' can it, for an instant, be pretended 
that congress, in such a contingency, would have no authority to 
interfere with the institution of slavery, in any way, in the states? 
Why, it would be equivalent to saying, that congress have no consti- 
tutional authority to make peace. 

I suppose a more portentous case, certainly within the bounds of 
possibility. — I would to God I could say not within the bounds of 
probability. You have been, if you are not now, at the very point of 
a war with Mexico — a war, I am sorry to say, so far as public rumor 
is credited, stimulated by provocations on our part from the very com- 
mnncement of this Adniinistration down to the recent authority given 
to General Gaines to invade the Mexican territory. It is said, that 
one of the earliest acts of this Administration, was a proposal made at 
* time wbeo there was already much Ul-humor io Mexico xigainst the 



JOHN q. ADAMS, 81 

United States, that she should cede to the United States a very large 
portion of her territory — large enough to constitute nine states equal 
in extent to Kentucky. It must be confessed, that, a device better 
calculated to produce jealousy, suspicion, ill-will, and hatred, could 
not liave been contrived. It is further affirmed, that this overture, 
off'viiisive in itself, was made precisely at the time when a swarm of 
colonists from these United States were covering the Mexican border 
with land-jobbing, and wiih slaves, introduced in defiance of the 
Mexican laws, by which slavery had been abolished throughout that 
republic. The war now raging in Texas is a Mexican civil war, and 
a war for the re-establishment of slavery where it was abolished. It 
is not a servile war, but a war between slavery and emancipation, and 
every possible effort has been made to drive us into the war, on the 
side ot slavery. 

And again I ask, what will be your cause in such a war? Aggres- 
sion, conquest, and the re-establishment of slavery, where it has been 
abolished. In that war, sir, the banners o^ freedom will be the banners 
of Mexico ; and your banners, I blush to speak the word, will be the 
banners of slavery. 

And how complicated? Your Seminole war is already spreading 
to the Creeks, and. in their march of desolation, they sweep along with 
them your negro slaves, and put arms into their hands to make common 
cause with them against you, and how far will it spread, sir, should a 
Mexican invader, with the torch of liberty in his hand, and the standard 
of freedom floating over his head, proclaiming emancipation to the slave, 
and revenge to the native Indian, as he goes, invade your soil? What 
will be the condition of your states of Louisiana, of Mississippi, of 
Alabama, of Arkansas, of Missouri, and of Georgia? Where will be 
your negroes ? Where will be that combined and concentrated mass 
of Indian tribes, whom, by an inconsiderate policy, you have expelled 
from their widely distant habitations, to embody them within a small 
compass on the very borders of Mexico, as if on purpose to give that 
country a nation of natural allies in their hostilities against you? Sir, 
yon have a Mexican, an Indian, and a negro war upon your hands, 
and you are plunging yourself into it blindfold ; you are talking about 
acknowledging the independence of the republic of Texas, and you are 
thirsting to annex Texas, ay, Coahuila, and Tamaulipas, and Santa 
Fe, from the source to the mouth of the Rio Bravo, to your already 
over-distented dominions. Five hundred thousand square miles of the 
territory of Mexico would not even now quench your burning thirst for 
aggrandizement 

Great Britain may have no serious objection to the independence of 
Texas, and may be willing enough to take her unde'- her protection, as 
a barrier both against Mexico and against you. But, as aggrandize- 
ment to you she will not readily suffer it ; and, above all, she will not 
suffir you to acquire it by conquest and the re-establishment of slavery. 
Urged on by the irresistible, overwhelming torrent of public opinion. 
Great Britain has recently, at a cost of one hundred millions of dollars, 
which her people have joyfully paid, abolished slavery throughout all 
her colonies in the West Indies. After setting such an example, she will 



32 JOHN Q.. ADAMS. 

not — it is impossible that sh"? should — stand by and witness a war for the 
re-establishment of slavery ; where it had been for years abolished, and 
situated thus in the immediate neighborhood of her islands. She will 
tell you, that if y;)u must have Texas as a member of your confederacy, 
it nuist be without the trammels of slavery, and if you will wage a 
war to handcuff and fetter your fellow-man, she will wage the war 
against you to break his chains. Sir, what a figure, in the eyes of 
mankind, would you make, in deadly conflict with Great Britain : she 
fighting the battles of emancipation, and you the battles of slavery; 
she the benefactress, and you the oppressor of human kind ! In such 
a war, the enthusiasm of emancipation, too, would unite vast numbers 
of her people in aid of the national livalry, and all her natural Jealousy 
against our aggrandizement. No war was ever so popular in England, 
as that war would be against slavery, the slave-trade, and the Anglo- 
Saxon descendant from her own loins. 

As to the annexion of Texas to your confederation, for what do you 
want it ? Are you not large and unwieldy enough already ? Do not 
two millions of square miles cover enough for the insatiate rapacity of 
your land-jobbers ? I hope there are none of them within the sound 
of my voice. Have you not Indians enough to expel from the land of 
their fathers' sepulchres, and to exterminate? What, in a prudential 
and military point of view, would be the addition of Texas to your 
domain ? It would be weakness and not power. Is your southern 
and southwestern frontier not sufficiently extensive? not sufficiently 
feeble? not sufficiently defenceless? Why are you adding regiment 
after regiment of dragoons to your standing army ? Why are you 
struggling, by direction and by indirection, to raise per saltum that 
army from less than six to more than twenty thousand men ? 

A war for the restoration of slavery, where it has been abolished, if 
successful in Texas, must extend overall Mexico; and the example 
will threaten Great Britain with imminent danger of a war of colors 
in her own islands. She will take possession of Cuba and Porto Rico, 
by cession from Spain, or by the batteries from her wooden walls ; 
and if you ask her by what authority she has done it, she will ask you, 
in return, by what authority you have extended your seacoast from 
the Sabine to the Rio Bravo. She will ask you a question more per- 
plexing namel}' — by what authority you, with freedom, independence, 
and deinocracy upon your lips, are waging a war of extermination to 
forge new manacles and fetters, instead of those which are falhng 
from the hands and feet of man. She will carry emancipation and 
abolition with her in every fold of her flag ; while your stars, as they 
increase in numbers, will be overcast with the murky vapors of op- 
pression, and the only portion of your banners visible to the eye, will 
be the blood-stained stripes of the task-master? 

Little reason have the inhabitants of Georgia and Alabama to com- 
plain that the government of the United Slates has been remiss or 
neglectful in protecting them from Indian hostilities; the fact is 
directly the reverse. The people of Alabama and Georgia are now 
suffering the recoil of their own unlawful weapons. Georgia, sir, 
Georgia, by trampling upon the faith of oiir national treaties with the 



JOHN Q. ADAMS. 



83 



Indian tribes, and by subjecting them to her state laws, first set the 
example of that policy which is now in the process of consummation 
by this Indian war, in setting this example, she bade defiance to the 
authority of the government of the nation ; she nullified your laws; 
she set at naught your executive guardians of the common constitu- 
tion of the laud. I'o what extent she carried this policy, the dungeons 
of her prisons and the records of the Supreme Judicial Court of the 
United States can tell. To those prisons she committed inoffensive, 
innocent, pious ministers of the gospel of truth, for carrying the light, 
the comforts, and the consociations of that gospt4 to the hearts and 
minds of these unhappy Indians. A solemn decision of the Supreme 
Court of the United States pronounced that act a violation ot your 
treaties and your laws. Georgia defied that decision ; your executive 
government never carried it into execution ; the imprisoned mission- 
aiies of the gospel were compelled to purchase their ransom from per- 
petual captivity, by sacrificing their rights as freemen to the meekness 
of their principles as Christians ; and you have sanctioned all these 
outrages upon justice, law, and humanity, by succumbing to the 
power and the policy of Georgia, by accommodating your legislation to 
her arbitrary will ; by tearing to tatters your old treaties with the 
Indians, and by constraining them, under peine forte et dure, to the 
mockery of signing other treaties w'»th you, which, at the first moment 
when it shall suit your purpose, you will again tear to tatters and 
scatter to the four winds of heaven, till the Indian race shall be extinct 
upon this continent, and it shall become a problem, beyond the f -'ution 
of antiquaries and historical societies, what the red man of tl; . ibrest 
was. 



[The Arms on the coin of the Mexican Republic, are Freedom's Eagle 
destroying the Serpent— Tyranny ; and its reverse bears the Cap of Libertt, 
diffusing its radiance univer sally. '\ 




MOBU. MAP OF THE UNITED STATES. 




^.fJ 



81«r«i) 



l« a d*i'i fpot on the face of the nation. -L^j.y«rt». 



LONDON PATRIOT WILLIAM B. REED. 36 



THE LONDON PATRIOT. 

The British public ought to be made aware of what is going on at 
present in Texas ; of the true cause and the true nature of the contest 
between the Mexican authorities and the American slave-jobbers. 

Texas has long been the Naboth's vineyard of brother Jonathan. 
For twenty years or more, an anxiety has been manifested to push back 
the boundary of the United States' territory, of which the Sabine river 
is the agreed line, so as to include the rich alluvial lands of the delta 
of the Colorado, at tlie head of the Gulf of Mexico. There are stronger 
passions at work, however, than the mere lust of territory — deeper 
interests at stake. Texas belongs to a republic which has abolished 
slavery ; the object of the Americans is to convert it into a slaveholding 
state ; not only to make it a field of slave cultivation, and a market 
for the Maryland slave-trade, but, by annexing it to the Federal Union 
to strengthen in congress the preponderating influence of the southern 
slaveholding states. 

This atrocious project is the real origin and cause of the pretended 
contest for Texian independence — a war, on the part of the United 
States, of unprovoked aggression for the vilest of all purposes. — 
jM/y6,1836. 

WILLIAM B. REED. 

One of the complaints made by the Texians is that the Mexican 
government will not permit the introduction of slaves, and one of the 
first fruits of independence and secure liberty (unnatural as is the 
paradox) will be the extension of slavery, and both the domestic and 
foreign slave-trade, over the limits of a territory large enough to form 
five states as large as Pennsylvania. Such being the result what 
becomes of any real or imaginary balance between the South and 
the North — the slaveholding and non-slaveholding interests ? Five 
or more slaveholding states, with their additional representation, 
thoroughly imbued vv-ith southern feeling, thoroughly attached to what 
the South CaroUna resolutions now before us, call " tlie patriarchal 
institution of domestic slavery," added to the Union, and where is 
the security of the North, and of the interests of free labor ? — These 
are questions worth considering — the more so, as the war fever vvWch 
is now burning in the veins of this community, and exhibiting itself 
in all the usual unreflecting expressions of sympathy and resentment, 
has disturbed the judgment of the nation, and distorted every notion 
of right and wrong. Let the Texians win independence as they can. 
That is their affair, not ours. But let no statesman that loves his 
country think of admitting such an increment of slaveholding popula- 
tion into this Union. He (Mr. R.) could not but fear that there was 
a deep laid plan to admit Texas into the Union, with a view to an 
increase of slaveholding representation in congress ; and while he 
viewed it in connexion witli th? growing indifu^rence perceptible in 
some quarters, he could not but feel melancholy forebodings. — Speech 
in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, June 11th, 1836. 



36 TEXAS. 

The following document, considering the avouched character of 
the gentlemen whose names are signed to it, and attest its truth, is 
entitled to a place in our colunms : — J^ational Jnlelligeiicer. 

TO THE PUBLIC. 

We will not dwell upon the false assurances made to us by men 
profcsfing to be the accredited agents of Texas in this country. At a 
time when the cause of Texas was dark and gloomy, when Santa 
Anna seemed designed to carry desolation over the whole country, 
those men were prodigal of promises, and professing to be authorized 
to speak in the nainc of the Texian Government, made assurances of 
ultimate remuneration, which they knew at the time to be false, and 
which time proved to be so. 

We now state that our personal observation and undoubted infor- 
mation enabled us fully to perceive, 1st. 'I hat the present population 
of Texas seiined wholly incapable of a just idi a of civil and political 
liberty, and that, so far as the extension of liberal pnnciples is con- 
cerned, it is of but little moment whether Mexico or Texas succeed in 
the stru :gle. 

2d. That the mass of the people, from the highest functionar}' of 
tlieir pretended £overnment to the humblest citizen (with but few ex- 
ceptions,) are animated alone by a desire of plunder, and appear 
totally indifl'.rcnt whom they plunder, friends or foes. 

3d. That ( ven now there is really no organized government in the 
country, no lawsadtninistered, no judiciary, a perpetual struggle going 
on b<'tween the civil and military departments, and neither having the 
confidence of the people, or being worthy of it. 

These facts and others sufficiently demonstrate to us that the cabinet 
was deficient in all the requisites of a good government, and that no 
one in his senses would trust himself, his reputation, or his fortunes, 
to their cliarge or control. Charged with treason, bribery, and usur- 
pations, weak in their councils, and still weaker in power to enforce 
tht'ir orders, we perceived at once that we must look for safety and 
proper inducements elsewhere. We then turned our eyes to the army, 
and a scene still more disheartening presented itself; undisciplined, 
and without an effort to become so; not a roll called, nor a drill ; no 
regular encampment; no authority nor obedience; with plundering 
parties for s(!lf-emolument, robbing private individuals of their property. 
We could see nothing to induce us lo embark our fortunes and destinies 
with them. With these views and facts, we could but sicken and 
wonder at the vile- deceptions which had been practised upon us ; yet 
we are told that this people had risen up in their might to vindicate the 
cause of civil and religious liberty. It is a mockerv of the very name 
of liberty. They are stimiiliitcd hy that «io/ire which such men can 
only appreciate — the hope of plunder. They are careless of the form 
of government under which they live, if that £rovernment will tolerate 
licentiousness and disorder. Such is a briet', but we sincerely be- 
lieve, a faithful picture of a country to which we were invited with 
•o much assiduity, and such th« manner in which w« were received 
&ad trMU«d 



NEW-YORK SUN. 37 

We might multiply facts in support of each proposition here laid 
down, to show the miserable condition of things in Texas, and the 
utter impossibility that a man of honor could embark in such a cause 
with such men. Should it be rendered necessary, we may yet do so ; 
but for the present we will pause with tliis remark, that if there be any, 
now, in Kentucky, whose hearts are animated with the desire of an 
honorable fame, or to secure a competent settlement for themselves or 
families, they must look to some other theatre than the plains of Texas. 
We would say to them, Listen not to the deceitful and hypocritical 
allurements of land speculators, %vho wish you to fight for their 
benefit, and who are as liberal of promises as they are faithless in perform' 
mice. We are aware of the responsibility whic'i we incur by this 
course. We are aware that we subject ourselves to the misrepresen- 
tations of liired agents and unprincipled landmongers ; but we are 
willing to meet it all, relying upon the integrity of our motives and the 
correctness oi our course, 

EDWARD J. WILSON, 
G. L. POSTLETHWAITE. 
Lexington, Sept. 10, 183G. 

NEW- YORK SUN. 

Extract from Gencial Houston's letter to General Dunlap of Nash- 
ville — 

" For a portion of this force we must look to the United States. It 
cannot reach us too soon. There is but one feeling in Texas, in my 
opinion, and that is to establish the independence of Texas, and to be 
attached to the United 57«<es." 

Here, then, is an open avowal by the commander-in-chief of the 
Texian army, that American troops will be required to seize and sever 
this province of the Mexican republic, for the purpose of uniting it to 
ours ; and this avowal is made by a distinguished American citizen, 
in the very face of that glorious constitution of his country, which wisely 
gives no power to its citizens for acquiring foreign territory by conquest, 
their own territory being more than amply sufficient to gratify any safe 
ambition ; and in the face, too, of the following solemn and sacred 
contract of his country with the sister republic which he would dis- 
member : 

"There shall be a firm, inviolable, and universal peace, and a true 
and sincere friendship between the United States of America, and the 
United Mexican States, in all the extent of their possessions and terri- 
tories, between their people and citizens respectively, without distinction 
of persons or places." 

In the earlier days of our republic, when a hig'u-minded and honor- 
able fidelity to its constitution was an object proudly paramount to 
every mercenary consideration that might contravene it, an avowed 
design of this kind against the possessions of a nation with whom the 
United vStates were at peace, would have subjected its author, if a 
citizen, to tlie charge of high treason, and to its consequences. When 
Aaron Burr and his associates were supposed to meditate the conquest 



38 NFlUTRALITy. 

of Mexico, and attempted to raise troops in the southern states to 
achieve it, tliey were arresti'd tor treason, and Burr, their chief, was 
tried for his lif-. But now, hnhold ! the conn-a-st of a part of the same 
country is an object openly pruclaiined, not in the litters of Geficral 
Houston alone, but by many of our wealthiest citizens at public ban- 
quets, and by the hireling presses in the chief cities of our Union. The 
annexation of a foreign territory to our own by foreign conquest, being 
thus unblushingly avowed, and our citizens, who are integral portions of 
our national sovereignty, being openly invited and incited to join the 
crusade with weapons of war, it becomes an interesting moral inquiry 
— what is there in the public mind to excuse or even to palliate so 
flagrant a prostitution of national faith and honor in these days, any 
more than in the days that are past ? The answer is ready at hand, 
and is irrefutable. An extensive and well organized gang of swindlers 
in Texas lands, have raised the cry, and the standard of "Liberty!" 
and to the thrilling charm of this glorious word, which stirs the blood 
of a free people, as the blast of the bugle arouses every nerve of the 
warhorse, have the generous feelings of our citizens responded in ardent 
delusion. But, as the Commercial Advertiser truly declares, "Never 
was the Goddess of American liberty invoked more unrighteously;" 
and we cannot but believe that the natural sagacity, good sense, and 
proud regard for their national honor, for which our citizens are distin- 
guished in the eyes of all nations, will speedily rescue them from the 
otherwise degrading error in which that vile crew of mercenary hypo- 
critical swindlers would involve them. The artful deceivers, however, 
have not relied upon the generosity and noble sympathy only of our 
fellow citizens, for they insidiously presented a bribe to e.vcite their 
cupidity also. 

NEUTRALITY I 

Next the Texian revolution. Was it not laughable to see these 
Tcxians, all of them, generally speaking, slaveholders ; adhering to 
the constitution of 18-24, one article of which emancipates all the slaves 
in Mexico! Was it not laughable to see them proclaiming a consti- 
tMtion, of which, eleven y.ars ago, the Americans in Texas had pro- 
hibited the proclamation by the Mexican authorities there, under the 
heaviest threats! — What man of common sense can believe in this 
hitmbug ? None, gentlemen ; none but those that have risked their 
thousands in this country ; and they, whoever they may be, feign to 
believe it. The statements made throughout the United States, of 
tyranny an-^'. oppression on the part of Mexico toward the American 
citizens in "^I'cxas, are slanderous falsehoods, fabricated to create and 
nurture the v.orst prejudices and j; aloiisies. The Americans in Texas 
have had their own way in every case, and on every occasion ; and 
whenever there happened a legislative act that was, from any cause, 
repugnant to the feelings of the people of Texas, it was silenced at 
once. In sliort, if there has existed a good cause of comi'laint in Texas, 
it was tliat men were too much their own masters, and too little under 
the restraint of any law. Any allegation to the effect that the Mexican 
government had deceived citizens of the United States in relation to 



GENERAL V^iLRiNSON. 39 

promises of lands first made to th^in, is false, and I defy any one to 
show a forfeiture of title to lands, when the conditions of the grant had 
been fulfilled by the settler. 

Now, sir, as to the war : here I will ask Americans, (except the 
speculators,) how many military incursions, insurrections, and rebel- 
lions, avowedly for the purpose of snatching Texas from its proper 
owners, will, in their mind, justify Mexico in driving from its territories, 
the pirates that would thus possess themselves of the country ? Be it 
remembered, that these vevulalions have never been attempted by the 
i^3sident citizens of Texas, but in every case by men organized in the 
United States for the purpose and coming from afar : why, a single 
provocation of this nature were ample justification ; but Texas has, 
from the time of the adjustment of the boundary by Wilkinson and 
Ferrara, experienced seven or eight. 

The Americans (I mean the regulars) and Texians, appear to 
understand each other perfectly. The neutrality is preserved on the 
part of General Gaines, by ailowin<^ all volunteers, and other organized 
corps destined for Texas, to pass in hundreds and thousands undis- 
turbed, but keeps in check any attempt on the part of the native 
Mexicans and Indians, to act against the Texians. The Texians are 
allowed to wage war against a friendly [)ov\er, in a district of country 
claimed by the United States, The prisoners of war taken by the 
Texians are ignorant to which party they are subject. The American 
general claims the country only from Mexico, but has no objections to 
the carrying on of war against Mexico in the district he claims! Pray, 
sir, let Americans speak honestly, and let them say whether any gov- 
ernment has, within the last century, placed itself in so ridiculous a 
light? — not only ridiculous, but contemptible. Will not any honest 
man confess at once that General Gaines, or any authority clothing 
him with the discretion so indiscreetly used, would never have dreamed 
of the like ai^ainst a government able and ready to defend itself, and 
punish such arrogance? What is Europe to say to this ? Will not 
Mexico complain ? And will there be no sympathy for hci? — Letter 
to the Editors of the J<'eio-York Coinmercitd Advertiser, dated J\facog- 
dogcs, Texas, September 14, 1836. 

[Alas, for our national degeneracy and infamy ; — In 1811, the sus- 
picion of being accessory to this horrible outrage against the laws of 
nature, and of nations, led a to distinct charge in the trial for treason of] 

GENERAL WILKINSON. 

Charge V. — That he, the said James Wilkinson, while commanding 
the army of the United States, by virtue of his said commission, and 
being bound by the duties of his office to do all that in him lay, to 
discover and to frustrate all such enormous violations of the law as 
tended to endanger the peace and tranquillity of the United Slates, did, 
nevevthclesp, unlav.-fuUv combine and conspire to set on foot a military 
expedition against the territories of a nation, then at peace with the 
United States. 

Specification, He, the said James Wilkinson, in the years 1805 and 



40 THE AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE AND TEXAS. 

1806, combining and conspiring with Aaron Burr and his associates, 
to set on foot a^military expedition against tlie Spanish provinces and 
territories in Amenca.— Wilkinson's JSlemoirs, Vol. 11. 

THE AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE AND TEXAS. 

By a treaty between Great Britain and Spain, for the suppression 
of the slave-trade, concluded in 1817, the British £ovcrnnient was 
authorized to appoint commissioners to reside^ in Cuba, \yho, with 
Spanish commissioners, were to form a court for the adjudication of 
surh ships as might be seized with slaves actually on board. 

The British commissioners from time to time make reports to their 
government, which are laid before Parliament, and pubhshed by their 
direction. 

The following are extracts from a report, dated Jst January, 1836. 
"Never since" the establishment of this mixed commission, has the 
slave-trade of the Havana reached such a disgraceful pitch as during 
the year 1835. By the list we have the honor to enclose, it will be 
seen that fiftv slave vessels have safely arrived in this port during the 
year just expired. In 1833, there were twenty-seven arrivals, and in 
1834, thirtv-thrce ; but 1835 presents a number, by means of >\ hich 
there must have been landed upwards of fifteen thousand negroes. 

"In the spring of last year an American agent from Texas pur- 
chased in the Havana two hundred and fifty newly imported Africans, 
at two hundred and seventy dollars a head, and carried them away 
with him to that district of Mexico — having first procured from the 
American Consul here certificates of their freedom. This, perhaps, 
would have been scarcely worth mentioning to your lordship, had wc 
not learned, that within the last six weeks, considerable sums of 
money have been deposited by the American citizens in certain mer- 
cantile houses here, tor the purpose of making additional purchases of 
bozal netrroes tor Texas. According to the laws of Mexico, we 
believe such Africans are t>ee, whether they have certificates of freedom 
or not ; but we doubt much whether this freedom will be more than 
nominal under their American masters, or whetlier the whole system 
may not be founded on some plan of smuggling them across the frontier 
of the slave states of the Union. However this may be. a great impulse 
is thus given to this illicit traffic of the Havana ; and it is not easy for 
us to point out to government what remonstrances ouo:ht to be made 
on ttie subject since the American settlers in Ttxas are almost as 
independent of American authority as they are of Mexico. These 
lawless people will doubtless, moreover assert, that they buy negroes 
in the lirvrna with a view to th*^ir ultimate emancipation. Wc 
thought, the first experiment to be of little eonsequenci^ — but now that 
wc perceive IVesh commissions arriving in the Havana for the purchase 
of Africans, wc cannot refrain from calling your lordship's attention to 
the fact, as being another cause of the increase of the slave-trade in 
the Havana." 

The foregoing throws light on the following recent article in the 
Albany Argus : — 



tj:xa.s anj> slavlrv. 41 

" The fate of [lenry Bartow, late of the Commercial Bank of this 
eily, has heeii at ieugth deliuitcly ascf-rtained. The a;/eiit sent out 
by the hank has returned, and states that Bartow died at Marianne, 
near Columhia, in Texa^-;, on the 30th of June last, of the fever of the 
country, after an ihness of ahout four weeks. iJe had purchased a 
farm on the Brasso.s, and, in company with a native of the country, 
had commenced au extensive plantation, and sent ji 10,000 to Cuba 
for the purchase of slaves. 

We grant that Texas would present us an immense territory of 
rich soil, and would he another brilliant star in our standard. On the 
other hand she would give us her quarrel with Mexicfj — add to our 
unwieldly slave incumbrance — and give the balance of power to the 
southern and southwestern states. We much question whether the 
United States should ever add more states to the confederacy. 
Already we are rent by the fiercest internal dissension. The North 
and South, the East and West, have their local feeUngs — which are 
becoming more stron;^ and definite every day. As it is, w^e are in 
constant and hourly danger of splitting, The time must come ulti- 
mately, and when it does it will be with terrible power. Why then 
should we burthen ourselves with still another local interest that must 
tend rapidly to hasten this result ? 

But another strong reason against such an annexation is the fact 
that it is a slaveholding country. The northern people differ relative 
to the ex/jet/ie/icj/ of interfering with this subject; ijut they a/Z admit 
that it is an evil, dangerous to our safety as a nation. It is univer- 
sally acknowledged that the slave population may ultimately become 
unmanageable by rapid increase ; and when it does we may expect 
to see re-enacted the fearful, blood-curdlini^ scenes of the West Indies. 
It is obvious, therefore, it would be highly impolitic to add such a 
slave market as Texas to the Union. — Detroit Spectator, 

Were any further proof wanting to convince; those at all conversant 
with the subject, that Texas will speedily become a great slave mart, 
the following article from the Liberia Herald, will furnish it. We have 
proved, lime and again, by the most indubitable testimony, (and the 
fact should be kept constantly before the people,) that the great cause 
which led to the rupture between the inhabitants of Texas and the 
mother country, was a determination on their part to traffic in slaves, 
which is strictly forbidden by the constitution of Mexico. How 
northern men, therefore, who profess to be opposed to slavery, can 
with any degree of consistency lend their influence in behalf of Texas, 
is more than can be accounted for. The fact is, they are not opposed 
to slavery; and W'e unhesitatinijly declare, that every one who has 
teiken the pains to inform himself of the first causes of the Texian in- 
surrection, is at heart a slaveholder, if he is in any manner aiding the 
cause of the insurgents. By "defending Texas," he is "upholding" 
and virtually justifying the enslavement of his brother, and his cry of 
liberty, is the very quintessence of hypocrisy. 

Shall Texas be admitted into the Union ? That is the question 

4* 



42 DANIEL WEBSTER, 

now. Her independence has already been recognized by our govern- 
ment • but it is yet to be decided whether this nation is to be cursed 
with an extension of its slave territory. What say you, freemen of 
the >i'ortli ? Shall Texas h^ admitted into the Union? Will you 
willinijly hug a viper to your own bosoms? There is but one alter- 
native"^ left you— inundate Congress, at its next session, with remon- 
strances against the admission of Texas, or you sign at once the 
death warrant of American freedom. 

Kflforts arc already being made for the admission of Florida as a 
slaveholding state. Should these efforts prove successful — but rriay 
heaven forbid it ! — siiould Texas also be adniitted, the slaveholding 
states would outnumber the free states — there being already thirteen 
slave to thirteen free states. And Texas alone is sufficiently large 
for, and probably will ultimately be divided into, some six or eight 
states. The liberty of the free states would exist only in name, were 
they to be outnumbered by the slave states. In such an event, a 
daiker cloud would hang over the United States than ever did before : 
and wo to that "fanatic" who might then talk of the abolition of 
slavery, even in the District of Columbia ! We might then expect to 
see all' the liorrors of slavery — horrors to which those of the French 
revolution bear but a feeble comparison — visited upon the heads of all 
who might dare to raise their voice in behalf of their down-trodden 
colored brethren ! 

Shall Texas be admitted into the Union ? We again ask. Free- 
men, will you willingly submit to the manacles of slavery ? If you 
would not, arouse from your slumbers, and thunder in the ears of the 
tyrants who are already forging chains for you and your children, 
your determination still to be free. — From the ISmerican Citizen. 

Slave Trade. — We have learned that great calculations are already 
making by slavers on the coast, on the increased demand and ad- 
vanced price of slaves which it is confidently anticipated will take 
place on the erection of Texas into an independent government. It 
has been rumored that offers have been made by a commercial house 
in New Orleans, to a slaver on the coast, for a certain number of 
slaves, to be delivered in a specified period ; and the only circumstance 
which nrcvented the consummation of the bargain was, that the slaver 
refusecl to be responsible for the slaves after they should be put on 
board. These facts, we think are important to be knoMn, as the 
christian and philanlliropic world may learn from them what they are 
upholding when they are defending Texas. — Liberia Herald. 

DANIEL WEBSTER. 

But when we come to speak of admitting new states, tlie subject 
assumes an entirely different aspect. Our rights and our duties are 
then both diffrent. 

The free states, and all the states, are then at liberty to accept, or 
to reject. When it is proposed to bring new members into this politi- 
cal partnership, the old members have a right to say on what terms 



WILLIAM JAY. 43 

such new members are to come in, and what they are to bring along 
\nth them. In my opinion, the people of the United States will not 
consent to bring a new, vastly extensive, a slaveholding country, 
large enough for half a dozen or a dozen states, into the Union. 
In my opinion they ought not to consent to it. Indeed I am altogether 
at a Loss to. conceive, w'hat possible benefits any part of this country 
can expect to derive from such annexation. All benefit, to any part 
is at least doubtful and uncertain ; the objections obvious, plain, and 
strong. On the general question of slavery, a great portion of the 
comnmnity is already strongly excited. The subject has not only at- 
tracted attention as a question of pohtics, but it has struck a far deeper 
toned chord. It has arrested the religious feelings of the country ; it has 
taken strong hold on the consciences of men. He is a rash man, 
indeed, httle conversant with human nature, and especially has he a 
very erroneous estimate of the character of the people of this country, 
who supposes that a feeling of this kind is to be trifled with, or despised. 
It will assuredly cause itself to be respected. It may be reasoned with, it 
may be made willing, I believe it is entirely willing to fulfil all existing 
engagements, and all existing duties, to uphold and defend the con- 
stitution, as it is established, with whatever regrets about some provi- 
sions, which it does actually contain. But to coerce it into silence, 
— to endeavor to restrain its free expression, to seek to compress and 
confine it, warm as ir. is and more heated as such endeavors would 
inevitably render it, — should all this be attempted, I know nothing 
even in the consfitution, or in the Union itself, which would not 
be endangered by the explosion which might follow. 

I see, therefore, no political necessity for the annexation of Texas to 
the Union ; no advantages to be derived from it ; and objections to it, 
of a strong, and in my judgment, decisive character. — Mdressin J^iblo''s 
Garden, 1S37. 

WILLIAM JAY. 

Fellow citizens, a crisis has arrived in which we must maintain our 
rights, or surrender them for ever. I speak not to abolitionists alone, 
but to all who value the liberty of our fathers achieved. Do you ask 
whatj\'e have to do with slavery ? — Let our muzzled presses answer — 
let the mobs excited against us by merchants and politicians answer — 
let the gag laws threatened by our governors and legislatures answer, 
let the conduct of the National Government answer. In 1826, Mexico 
and Columbia being at war with Spain, proposed carrying their armies 
into Cuba, a Spanish colony. These repubhcs had abohshed slavery 
within their own limits, and it was feared that if they conquered Cuba 
they would give liberty to the thousands there enchained. And 
what did our liberty-loving government do? Why they sent on 
special messengers to Panama to threaten our sister republics with 
WAR if they dared to invade Cuba. Nor was this all ; a minister was 
sent to Spain, and ordered to urge upon the Spanish monarch the 
policy of making peace with his revolted colonies, lest if the war con- 
tinued, nearly a million of human beings should recover and enjoy the 



44 THE BRITISH PARLlAaMLNT TEXAS. 

nghts of man. What have we to do witli slavery ? Is it nothing that 
nineteen Senators were found to vote for a bill establishing in every 
post town a censorship of the press, and that a citizen of JN'ew York 

favc a casting vote in favor of the abomination, and has received as 
is reward, the office of President of the United States ? Is it nothing 
that oar own representatives have spurned our petitions at thcman- 
date of slaveholders ? What have we to do with slavery ? Look at 
the loathsome community, just sprung into being on our southern 
border, the progeny of treason and robbery, a vile republic, organized 
for the express purpose of re-establishing slavery on a soil I'rom which 
it had been lately expelled ; and providing lor its perpetual continu- 
ance by constitutional provisions, and daring to insult us, with the 
offer of a monopoly of its trade in human Hesh. — Yet northern specu- 
lators and politicians in conjunction with slaveholders, are now plotting 
to compel us to receive this den of scorpions into our bosom, to admit 
Texas into our confederacy, with a territory capable of furnishing eight 
or nine more slave states, and by thus giving to the enemies of human 
rights, an overwhelmning majority in congress, to subject this northern 
country to the dominion of the South ; and perhaps before long, to 
cause the crack of the whip and the clank of chains to re-echo on our 
hills, and our fields to be polluted with the blood and tears of slaves. 
To effect a speedy union with Texas, endeavors are now making to 
involve us in a war with Mexico, and when the unholy alliance shall 
have been consummated, then farewell to republican freedom, to 
christian morals, to happiness at home, or to respect abroad. This 
fair land, once the glory of all lands, will become a bye word, a re- 
proach, and a hissing to all people, and we and our children will be 
taught bv bitter ex|)eriencc, what the North had to do with slavery. — 
Jlddrcss,' July 4, 1837. 

THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT. 

Texas. 

Mr. Barlow Hot rose to call the attention of the House to the pre- 
sent state of affliirs in the Texas. — The importance of that territory 
was well known to all who were acquainted with its geographical 
position. Mr. Pluskisson, aware that the United States would be 
desirous to annex the Texas to their territory, laid it down as a rnaxim, 
that Great Britain should on no a('COunt allow America to extend her 
boundary in the direction of Mexico. — It was notofious that an enor- 
mous importation of slaves took place into the Texas, and if this 
system were allowed to continue, all the sums which we had expended 
in endeavoring to suppress the traffic in slaves would have been 
thrown away. If we did not co-operate with Mexico in endeavouring 
to presei-ve the Texas for Mexico, and thus to prevent the importation 
of slaves into the Mexican territory, we had better at once withdraw 
our fleet from the coast of Africa, and abandon Sierra Leone. The 
United States, appeared to be acting a faithless part ; they kept the 
boundaiy question open both with respect to Mexico and Great 
Britain. If they had not some sinister motive for keeping the question 



RELIGIOUS AND MORAL TESTIMONY. 45 

open, it ought to have been settled long since, as it would have been, 
if the United States had accepted the mediation of the King of Holland. 
It was not the standard of hberty and independence which was 
raised in the Texas, but the pirate's flao;, under cover of which the 
slave-trade was carried on. We had interfered in the affairs of 
Holland and Belgium, Portugal and Spain ; why, then, should we 
not remonstrate in a friendly minner with the United States upon the 
conduct which they were pursuing with regard to the Texas ? 

Mr. O'CoNNEL thought that humanity was indebted to the Hon. 
Member for bringing this question before the House. It was only by 
the expression of public opinion that we could hope to check the pro- 
gress of one of tlie most horrible evils the human mind could contem- 
plate — viz. the formation of eight or nine additional slaveholding states. 
The revolt of Texas was founded on nothing else but the abolition of 
slavery by the Mexican government. In 1824, the Mexican govern- 
ment had pronounced that no person after that period should be born 
a slave. In 1829 they went further, and abolished slavery, and 
immediately followed the revolt of the landholders, who had settled 
themselves in Texas. Who could contemplate without horror the 
calculation, as in the case of stocking a farm, what was the necessary 
complement of men and women, and when they would be ready and 
ripe for the market ? It was a blot which no other country but 
America had ever yet suffered to stain its history — no nation on the 
face of the earth had ever been degraded by such crimes, except the 
high-spirited North American Republic. Talk of the progn^s of 
democratic principle ! No man admired it more than he did. AVhat 
became of it when its principal advocates could not be persuaded to 
abstain from such species of traffic as this ? Texas had speculated on it. 

Colonel Thompson asked whether it was not the fact that all the 
inhabitants of this province were Americans, and not Mexicans? It 
had been said in former times, iibi Romane vincis, ibi habitas; and 
with equal truth it might now be said, that where an American con- 
quered there he carried slavery as a necessary of life. — March 9th, 1837. 

RELIGIOUS AND MORAL TESTIMONY. 

PRESBYTERIAN SYJVOZ) o/ JVeio York and Philadelphia, 1787. 

The Synod of New York and Philadelphia, (1787,) do highly 
approve of the general principles in favor of universal liberty that pre- 
vail in America, and the interest which many of the states have taken 
in promoting the abolition of slavery. They earnestly recommend it 
to all the members belonging to their communion, to give those per- 
sons who are at present held in servitude, such good education as to 
prepare them for the better enjoyment of freedom. And they more- 
over recommend that masters, whenever they find servants disposed 
to make a just improvement of the privilege, would give them a pccii- 
lium, or grant them sufficient time, and sufficient moans of procuring 
their own libeity at a moderate rate ; that thereby they may be brought 
into society with those habits of industry that may render them useful 



46 llLLlGlOUtJ A^D MORAL TKSiTlMONV. 

citizens. And finally, they recommend it to iill their people to use the 
most prudent measures, consistent with the interests and the state of 
civil society in the countries where they live, to procure eventually the 
final abohtion of slavery in America. 

Advice given by the Assembly, in relation to Slavery, in 1815. 

"The General Assembly have repeatedly declared their cordial 
approbation of those principles of civil liberty which appear to be 
recognized by the Federal and State governments, in these United 
States. They have expressed their regret that the slavery of the 
Africans and of their descendants still continues in so many places, 
and even among those within tlie pale of the Church ; and have urged 
the Presbyteries under their care, to adopt such measures as will 
secure at least to the rising generation of slaves, within the bounds of 
the Church, a religious education ; that they may be prepared for the 
exercise and enjoyment of liberty, when God, in his providence may 
open a door for their emancipation. 

"A full expression of the Assembly's views of Slavery, in 1818. 

"We consider the voluntary enslaving of one part of the human 
race by another, as a gross violation of the most precious and sacred 
rights of human nature ; as utterly inconsistent with the law of God 
V. hich requires us to love our neighbor as ourselves ; and as totally 
i. ."concilable with the spirit and principles of the gospel of Christ, 
\. ;ch enjoin that 'all things whatsoever ye would that men should do 
to vou, do ye even so to them.' Slavery creates a paradox in the 
nioial system — it exhibits rational, accountable, and immortal beings 
in such circumstances as scarcely to leave them the power of moral 
action. It exhibits them as dependant on the will of others, whether 
they shall receive religious instruction ; whether they shall know and 
worship the true God ; whether they shall enjoy the ordinances of the 
gospel ; whether they shall perform the duties and cherish the endear- 
ments of husbands and wives, parents and children, neighbors and 
friends ; whether they shall preserve their chastity and purity, or 
regard the dictates of justice and humanity. Such are some of the 
consequences of slavery ; consequences not imaginary, but which con- 
nect thfMnselves with its very existence. The evils to which the slave 
is always exposed, often take place in their very worst degree and form ; 
and wlu're all of them do not take place, still tlie slave is deprived of 
his natural rights, degraded as a human being, and exposed to the 
danger of passing into the hand of a master who may intlict upon him 
all the hardshij)6 and injuries which inhumanity and avarice may 
suggest. 

'* We enjoin it on all Church Sessions and Presbyteries to discoun- 
tenance, and as far as possible to prevent all cruelty, of whatever kind, 
in the treatment of slaves ; esperiaily the cruelty of separating husband 
and wife, parents and children ; and that which consists in selling 
slaves to tiiose who will either themselves deprive those unhappy 
people of the bleesings of the gospel, or who will transport them to 



.tIETHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH S. HOPKINS, D. D. 47 

places where the gospel is not proclaimed, or where it is forbidden to 
slaves to attend upon its institutions. The manifest violation or dis- 
regard of this injunction, ought to be considered as just ground lor the 
discipline and censures of the Church. And if it shall ever happen 
that a Christian professor in our conniiunion shall sell a slave who is 
also in communion with our Church, contrary to his or her will and 
inclination, it ought immediately to claim the particular attention of the 
proper Church judicature ; and unless there be such peculiar circum- 
stances attending the case as can but seldom happen, it ought to be 
followed without delay, by a suspension of the otfender from all the 
privileges of the Church, till he repent and make all the reparation in his 
power to the injured party." — Digest of the General Assembly, page 341. 

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

There is only one condition previously required of those who desire 
admission into these societies, a desire to flee from the wrath to come, 
and to be saved from their sins. But wherever this is really fixed in 
the soul, it will be shown by its fruits. It is therefore expected of all 
who continue therein, that they should continue to evidence their desire 
of salvation, by doing no harm, by avoiding evil of every kind, especially 
that which is most generally practised, such as — 'Hhe buying and 
selling of men, icomen, or children, xoith an intention to enslave them.'''' 

Of slavery, — (Question. — What shall be done for the extirpation 
of the evil of slavery ? 

Answer 1. — We declare that we are as much as ever convinced of 
the great evil of slavery ; therefore, no slaveholder shall be eligible to 
any ofHcial station in our Church hereafter ; where the laws of the 
state in which he lives will admit of emancipation, and permit the 
liberated slave to enjoy freedom. 

Answer 2. — When any travelling preacher becomes an owner of a 
slave or slaves, by any means he shall forfeit his ministerial character 
in our Church, unless he execute, if it be practicable, a legal emanci- 
pation of such slaves, conformably to the laws of the state in which he 
lives. — Doctrine and Discipline. 

SAMUEL HOPKINS, D. D. 

Are you sure your slaves have a sufficiency of good food, in season ; 
and that they never want for comfoi table clothing and bedding? Do 
you take great care to deal as well by them in these things, as you 
would wish others would treat your own cliiklren, were they slaves in 
a strange land ? If your servants complain, are you ready to attend 
to them ? Or do you in such cases frown upon them, or do something 
worse, so as to discourage their ever applying to you, whatever they 
may suffer, liaving learned tliat this would only be making bad worse? 
Do you never fly into a passion, and deal with them in great anger, 
deciding matters respecting them, and threatening them, and giving 
sentence concerning them, from which they have no appeal, and 
perhaps proceed to correct them, when to a calm bystander you appear 
more fit to he confined in a bedlam, than to have ihe sovereign, r.ncoa- 



48 JONATHAN EDWARDS. 

trollable dominion over your brethren, as the sole lawgiver, judge, and 
executioner ? Do not even your children domineer over your slaves ? 
Must they not often be at the beck of an ungoverncd, peevish child in 
the family ; and if they do not run at his or her call, and are not all 
submission and obedience, must they not expect the frowns of their 
masters, if not the whip? 

If none of these things, my good sir, take place in your family, have 
we not reason to think you a most singular instance ? How common 
are things of this kind, or worse, taking place between masters and 
their slaves ? In how few instances, if in any, are slaves treated, as 
the mast' rs would wish to have their own children treated, in like cir- 
cumstan« cs ? How few arc tit to be masters ? To have the sovereign 
dominion over a number of their fellow nif^n, being his property, and 
wholly at his disposal ; who must abide his sentence and orders, how- 
ever unreasonable, M'ithout any possibility of relief / 

But are we at the same time making slaves of many thousands of 
our brethren, who have as good a right to liberty as ourselves, and to 
whom it is as sweet as it is to us, and the contrary as dreadful ! Are 
we holding them in the mo:! abject, miserable state of slavery, without 
the least compassionate feehng towards them or their posterity , utterly 
refusing to take off the oppressive galling yoke! Oh, the shocking, 
the intolerable inconsistency ! And this gross, barefaced inconsistency 
is an open, practical condemnation of holding these our brethren in 
slavery ; and in these circumstances the crime of persisting in it becomes 
unspeakably greater and more provoking in God's sight ; so that all 
the former unrighteousness and cruelty exercised in this practice, is 
innocence, compared with the awful guilt that is now contracted. 
And in allusion to the words of our Saviour, it may with great truth 
and propriety be said, "If he had not thus come in his Providence, and 
spoken unto us, (comparatively speaking,) \vc had not had sin, in 
making bond-slaves of our brethren ; but now, we have no cloak for 
our sin." — Dialogue on African Slavery, 1776, republished 1785, by tht 
^. Y. Mamiinission Society, xohose president loas John Jay. 

JONATHAN EDWARDS. 

The eradication, or even the diminution of compassion, tenderness, 
and humanity, is certainly a great depravity of heart, and must be 
followed with correspondent depravity of manners. And measures 
which lead to such depravity of heart and manners, cannot but be 
extremely hurtful to the state, and consequently are extremely impolitic. 

African slavery is cxceedinoly impolitic, as it discourages industry. 
Nothing is more essential to the political prosperity of any state, than 
industry in the citizens. But in proportion as slaves ace multiplied, 
every kind of labor becomes ignominious ; and in fact, in those of the 
United States, in which slaves are the most numerous, gentlemen and 
ladies of any fashion disdain to employ themselves in business, which 
in other states is consistent with the dignity of the first families and 
first odices. In a country filled with negro slaves, labor belongs to 
them only, and a white man is despised in proportion as he applies to 



ELIAS HICKS JESSE TORREY, JR. 49 

it. Now how destructive to industry in all of the lowest and middle 
classes of citizens, such a situation, and the prevalence of such ideas 
will be, you can easily conceive. The consequence is, that some will 
nearly starve, others will betake themselves to the most dishonest 
practices, to obtain the means of living. 

As slavery produces indolence in the white people, so it produces 
all those vices which are naturally connected with it ; such as intem- 
perance, lewdness, and prodigality. These vices enfeeble both the 
body and the mind, and unfit men for any vigorous exertions and em- 
ployments, either external or mental ; and those who are unfit for such 
exertions, are alieady a very degenerate race; degenerate, not only 
in a moral, but a natural sense. They are contemptible too, and will 
soon be despised even by their negroes themselves. 

Slavery has a most direct tendency to haughtiness also, and a domi- 
neermg spirit and conduct in the proprietois of the slaves, in their 
children, and in all who have the control of them. A man who has 
been bred up in domineering over negroes, can scarcely avoid con- 
tractmg such a habit of haughtiness and domination, as will express 
itself in his general treatment of mankind, whether in his private 
capacity, or in any office, civil or military, with which he may be 
ves'Dd. Despotism in economics naturally leads to despot:«sm in 
polices, and domestic slavery in a free government is a perfect solecism 
in numan affairs. — The Injustice and Impolicy of the slave-trade and of 
the slavery of the Jlfncans — a Sermon in JSTe-w Haven, Sept. 15, 1791. 

ELIAS HICKS. 

We, in an enlightened age, have greatly surpassed, in brutality and 
injustice, the most ignorant and barbarous ages ; and while we are 
pretendmg to the finest feelings of humanity, are exercising unpre- 
cedented cruelty. We have planted slavery in the rank soil of sordid 
avarice; and the product has been misery in the extreme. 

The slavedealer, the slaveholder, and the slavedriver are virtually 
the agents of the coiisumer. Whatever we do by another, we do 
ourselves. 

JESSE TORREY, Jr. 

To enumerate all the horrid and aggravating instances of man- 
stealing, which are known to have occurred in the state of Delaware, 
within the recollection of many of the citizens of that state would 
require a volume. In many cases, whole families of free colored people 
have been attacked in the nisht, beaten nearly to deatli with clubs, 
gagged and bound, and dragged into distant and hopeless captivity ; 
leaving no traces behind, except the blood from their wounds. 

During the last winter, the house of a free black family was broken 
open, and its defenceless inhabitants treated in the manner just men- 
tioned, except that the mother escaped from their merciless grasp, 
while tJn their way to the state of Maryland. The plunderers, of whom 
there were nearly half a dozen, conveyed their prey upon horses ; and 
the woman being placed on one of the horses, behind, improved an 

5 



60 JOHN KENRICK. 

opportunity, as they were passinc^ a house, and sprang off. Xot daring 
to pursue her, they proceeded on, leaving her youngest child a little 
further along, hy the side of the road, in expectation, it is supposed, 
that its cries would attract the mother ; but she prudently waited until 
jiiorning, and recovered it again in safety. 

From the best information that I have had opportunities to collect, 
in travelling my various routes through the states of Delaware and 
Maryland, I am fully convinced that there are, at this time, within the 
jurisdiction of the United States, several thousands of legally free 
people of color, toiling under the yoke of involuntary sen'itude, and 
transmitting the same fate to their posterity! — Domestic Slavery and 
Kidnapping. 

JOHN KENRICK. 

" The Horrors of Slaverrj.^^ — To invite attention to this melancholy 
subject, and to excite sympathy for the suffering, is the object of this 
publication. Th^-' compiler firmly believes that his countrymen stand 
exposed to the righteous rebukes of Providence for this glaring incon- 
sistency and inhumanity; that whether they shall be tried at the bar 
of reason, the bar of conscience, or the bar of God, thev may justly be 
condemned out of their own mouths ; and that all their arguments, and 
all their fightings for liberty, may be produced as evidence, that as a 
people, they do unto others as they would not that others should do 
unto them. The sulfjring and degraded sons of Africa are groaning 
under bondage in a land of boasted freedom, — nav, groaning under 
oppression from the hands of men who would probably involve a whole 
nation in war and bloodshed — or even set the xcorld on fire, rather than 
submit to a fiftieth part of the violation of natural rights which they 
inflict on the African race. 

Whenever the government of the United States shall come to the 
righteous and consistent determination, that all the inhabitants shall be 
free, it is believed that no insurmountable obstacles will be found in 
the way of its accomplishment. Whether it would be just, and equal, 
and eligible, to take money from the public treasury to redeem Afncan 
slaves, may possibly become a question for the consideration of con- 
gress. It may not, however, be amiss for the people to inquire whether 
it would be more just and equitable to continue to withhold from more 
than a million (now two millions) of our ft^Uow beings those essential 
blessings, without which we ourselvesshould consider life insupportable. 

If it should 1)0 pli'aded that the powers of the general government 
are too limited to ensure the personal, civil, and religious liberties of 
all ; can a doubt be entertained of the readiness of the people, when 
they fairly understand the subject, to enlarge those powers to any 
extent necessary for the attainment of an object of such transcendant 
importance ? To say " they would not," would be to utter a most 
shameful libel against a majority of the freemen of the United States. 
— The Horrors nf Slavery. 



THE SLAVE-TRADE EDINBURGH REVIEW. 61 



THE SLAVE-TRADE. 

We now come to our own country, the United States. And what 
shall we say ? What must we say ? AVhat does the truth compel us 
to say ? Why, that of all the countries appealed to by §reat Britain 
and France on this momentous subject, the United States is the only one 
which has returned a decided negative. Wc neither do any thing our- 
selves to put down the accursed traffic, nor afford any facilities to 
enable others to put it down. Nay, rather, we stand between the 
slave and his deliverer. We are a drawback — a dead weight on the 
cause of bleeding humanity. How long shall this sliameiul apathy 
continue? How long shall we, who call ourselves the champions 
of freedom, close our ears to the groans, and our eyes to the tears and 
blood, and our hearts to the untold anguish of thousands and tens of 
thousands who are every year torn from home and friends and bosom 
companions, and sold into hopeless bondage, or perish amid the hor- 
rors of the " middle passage?" From the shores of bleeding Africa, 
and from the channels of the deep, from Brazil and from Cuba, Echo 
answers, "How long?" — JV*. F. Journal of Commerce, Sept. 1835. 

EDINBURGH REVIEW. 
We have, however, to record one instance of positive refusal to our 
request of accession to these conventions, and that, we grieve to say, 
comes from the United States of America — the first nation that, by its 
statute law, branded the slave-trade with the name of piracy. The 
conduct, moreover, of the President, does not appear to have been 
perfectly candid and ingenuous. There appears to have been delay in 
returning any answer, and when returned, it seems to have been of an 
evasive character. In the month of August, 1833, the English and 
French ministers jointly sent in copies of the recent conventions, and 
requested the accession of the United States. At the end of March 
following, seven months afterwards, an answer is returned, which, 
though certainly not of a favorable character in other respects, yet 
brings so prominently into view, as the insuperable objection, that the 
mutual right of search of suspected vessels was to be extended to the 
shores of the United States, (though we permitted it to American 
cruisers off the coast of our West Indian colonies,) that Lord Palmer- 
ston was naturally led to suppose that the other objections v/ere su- 
perable. He, therefore, though aware how much the whole efficiency 
of the agreement will be impaired, consents to waive that part of it, in 
accordance with the wishes of the President, and in the earnest hope 
that he will, in return, make some concessions of feeling or opinion to 
the wishes of England and France, and to the necessities of a great 
and holy cause. The final answer, however, is, that under no condi- 
tion, in no form, and with no restrictions, will the United States enter 
into any convention or treaty, or make combined efforts of any sort or 
kind, with other nations, fiir the suppression of the trade. Wc much 
mistake the state of public opinion in the United States, if its govern- 
ment will not find itself under the necessity of changing this resolution. 
The siave-trade will henceforth, we have little doubt, be carried on 



62 ELIZABETH MARGARET CHANDLER. 

under the flag of freedom ; but as in no country, after our own, 
have such persevering efforts for its suppression been made, by rnen 
the most distinguished for goodness, wisdom, and eloquence, as in 
the United States, we cannot believe that their flag will long be pros- 
tituted to such vile purposes ; and either they must combine wiih other 
nations, or they must increase the number and efficiency of their naval 
forces on the coast of Africa and elsewhere, and do their work single- 
handed. We say this the more, because the motives which have 
actuated the government of the United States in this refusal, clearly 
have reference to the words, " right of search." They will not choose 
to see fliat this is a mutual restricted right, effected by convention, 
strictly guarded by stipulations for one dennite object, and confined in 
its operations within narrow geographical limits ; a right, moreover, 
which t^ngUmd and France have accorded to each other without dero- 
gating f.o:n the national honour of either. If we are right m our con- 
jecture of the motive, and there is evidence to support us, we must 
consider that the President and his ministers have been in this instance, 
actuated by a narrow provincial jealousy, and totally unworthy of a 
great and independent nation. 

ELIZABETH MARGARET CHANDLER. 

The Domeatic Slave-trade. — This is the most indefensible, as well as 
the most detestible feature in the system of slavery. It will not admit 
of even an attempt at justification. There are many who piofess to 
deplore the existence of slavery, who yet consider its abolition im- 
practicable, or unjust to the owners of slaves, or dangerous to the 
community. Others ngain, will descant largely on the blessings and 
advantages of slavery to those who are favored with the enjoyment of 
its benefits, ending with a declaration that their situation, if restored to 
freedom, would be infinitely more deplorable. But none of these rea- 
sons can bo urged iii behalf ot' this shameful trafijc. It is a guilt and an 
infamy for which our country has no excuse. If her slave population 
was entailed upon her against her will, and cannot now be got rid of, 
she is at least, under no compulsion to permit herself to be disgraced 
by this infamous traffic. 

Slave Produce. — One would suppose that the bare knowledge of the 
terrible price at which those cherislied comforts have been procured, 
would cause a woman to turn shud«lering and loathingly away, as 
thouih they were infected with a taint of blood. And the curse of 
blood is upon them I Though the dark red stain may not be there 
visibly, yet the blood of all the many thousands of the slain, who have 
died amid the horrors and loathsomeness of the slave-ship — been hurled 
by rapacious cruelty to the yawning wave, or sprang to its bosom in 
the madness of their proud despair — of those who have pined away to 
death beneath the slow tortures of a broken heart, who have poiished 
beneath the tortures of inventive tyranny, or on the ignominious 
gibbet — all this lies with a fearful weight upon this most foul and 
unnatural system, and that insatiable thirst for luxury and wealth in 
which it first originated, and by which it is still perpetuated. 



PRUDENCE CRANDALL. 5'6 

Think of our country's glory, 

All dimm'd with Afric's tears — 
Her broad flag stain'd and gory 

With the hoarded guilt of years ! 

Tliink of the frantic mother, 

Lamenting for iier child, 
Till falUng lashes smother 

Her cries of anguish wild ' 

Think of the prayers ascending • 

Yet shnek'd, alas I in vain, 
When heart from heart is rending 

Ne'er to be joined again. 

Shall we behold, unheeding. 

Life's hohest feeUngs crusii'd ? 
When woman's heart is bleeding, 

Shall w^oman's voice be hush'dl 

Oh, no ! by every blessing 

That Heaven to thee may lend — 
Remember their oppression. 

Forget not, sister, friend. 

E. M. Chandler's Works. 



TO PRUDENCE CRANDALL. 

Heaven bless thee noble lady. 

In thy purpose, good and liigh ! 
Give knowledge to the thirsting mind, 

Light to tiie asking eye ; 
Unseal the intellectual page. 

For those from whom dark pride, 
With tyrant and unholy hands, 

Would fain its treasures hide. 

Still bear thou up unyielding, 

'Gainst persecution's shock, 
Gentle as woman's self yet firm 

And moveless as a rock ; 
A thousand spirits yield to thee 

Their gushing sympathies, 
The blessing of a thousand hearts 

Around thy pathway hes. E. M. C. 



PRUDENCE CRANDALL. 

This enterprising and philanthropic young lady has been tried and 
convicted by a court in the state of Connecticut, after all the usual 
formalities of examining witnesses, hearing counsel, and the delivery 
of a charge from his honor the judge, of— readers what do you suppose? 
not of stealing nor breaking the peace and dignity of the state — but of 
teaching young women to read and write. Truly this is a very enlight- 
ened age! and Connecticut, so far-famed for her colleges, and 
seminaries of learning, has taken the lead in causing her light to shine! ! 
A jury of that enlighten'^d state, has convicted one of her daughters of 
endeavoring to impart literary instruction to females ! Truly, " where 
the light that is in us becomes darkness, how great is tliat darkness ! !" 



64 N. p. WILLIS J. G. WHITTIER L. H. SIGOURNEY. 

The greater the 

'jpiavity winch can produce such palpable violat 

the 
te 

b: L. 
N. P. WILLIS. 



X ne greater me opportunities we possess of knowing what is ri^ht, 
the greater the depravity which can produce such palpably violations 
of the decencies of civilized society, as have been exhibited in the 
persecutions to which this virtuous young woman has been subjected. 

R. L. 



And we are free— but is there not 

One blot upon our name ? 
Is our proud record written fair 

Upon the scioll of fame ' 

Our banner floateth by the shore, 

Our flag upon the sea — 
But when the fetter'd slave is loos'd, 

We shall be truly free. 

JOHN G. WHITTIER. 

What ! shall we henceforth humbly ask as favors. 

Rights all our own ? In madness shall we barter, 
For treach'rous peace the Freedom nature gave us 
God and our charter? 

From each and all, if God hath not forsaken 

Our land and left us to an evil choice, 
Loud as the summer thunder-bolt shall waken 
A people's voice ! 

Oh, let that voice go forth ! tlie bondman, sighing 
By Santee's wave, in Missisippi's cane, 
Shall feel the hope within his bosom, dying, 
Kevive again. 

Let it go forth ! The millions who are gaziny 

Sadly upon us from afar shall smile. 
And, unto God devout thanksgiving raising, 

Bless us the while. 

Oh. for your ancient freedom, pure and holy. 

For the deliv'rance of a groaning earth, 
For the wronged captive, bleeding, crushed and lowl 
Let it go forth ! 

LYDIA H. SIGOURNEY. 

Oh I if to Afric's sable race 

A fearful debt we justly owe. 
If heaven's dread book record the trace 

Of every deed and thought below — 

And if for them the christian prayer 
Impluies of God to guide and save, 

Then let these helpless suppliants share 
From mercy's store the mite thty crave. 

Touch deep for them the pitying breast, 
Bid bounty's stream llow warm and Irco 

For who ciiii toll atiioti;; the blest, 
Kow iivnMi u\o\x Aax^! J ui p.-ccu :aay bo 7 



W B. TAPPAN JOHN PIERPONT L. M. CHILD. 55 



WILLIAM B. TAPPAN. 

Could your griefs, wretched slaves ! could your injuries speak, 

Oh, God ! what a tale to unfold ; 
Blush, blush, guilty Europe I shroud, manhood, thy cheek, 

Weep, weep for the passion of gold. 

Yet that here, where our symbol the wild eagle flies 

Oh, shame ! writhes the African's soul — 
That on fields bought by freedom, an outcast he dies, 

Time ! veil it— 'twill darken thy scroll. 

My co<intry ! that plighted'st to freedom thy troth, 

Redeem it I— thou art not yet free ; 
On, eternity's page thou recordest thine oath, 

'Tis broken ! there's slavery with thee. 

JOHN PIERPONT. 

Quench, righteous God, the thirst, 
That Congo's sons hath curs'd — 

The thirst for gold ! 
Shall net thy thunders speak. 
Where Mammon's altars reek, 
Where maids and matrons shriek, 

Bound, bleeding, sold? 

Cast down, great God, the fanes, 
That, to unhallowed gains, 

Round us have risen — 
Temples whose priesthood pore 
Moses and Jesus o'er. 
Then bolt the black man's door. 
The poor man's prison I 

LYDIA MARIA CHILD. 

In order to show the true aspect of slavery among tis, I will state 
distinct propositions, each supported by the evidence of actually exist- 
ing laws. 

1. Slavery is hereditary and perpetual, to the last moment of the 
slave's earthly existence, and to all his descendants, to the latest 
posterity. 

2. The labor of the slave is compulsory and uncompensated ; while 
the kind of labor, the amount ot toil, and the time allowed for rest, are 
dictated solely by the master. No bargain is made, no wages given. 
A pure despotism governs the human brute ; and even his covering 
and provender, both as to quantity and quality, depend entirely on the 
master's discretion. 

3. The slave being considered a personal chattel, may be sold, oi 
pledged, or leased, at the will of his master. He may be exchanged 
for marketable commodities, or taken in execution for the debts, or 
taxes, either of a living, or a deceased master. Sold at auction, 
"either individually, or in lots to suit the purchaser," he may remain 
wilh his finiily, or be i^eparated fro;ii them lOi: over. 



56 SARAH M. GRIMKE ANGELINA E. GRIMKE. 

4. Slaves can make no contracts, and have no legal right to any 
property, real or personal. Their own honest earnings, and the lega- 
cies of friends, belong, in point of law, to their masters. 

5. Neither a slave, nor free colored person, can be a witness against 
any white or free man, in a court of justice, however atrocious may 
have been the crimes they have seen him commit : but they may give 
testimony against a fellow-slave, or free colored man, even in cases 
affecting life. 

6. The slave may be punished at his master's discrc^oii — without 
trial — without any means of legal redress, — whether his offence be 
real or imaginary : and the master can transfer the same despotic 
power to any person, or persons, he may choose to appoint. 

7. The slave is not allowed to resist any free man under any cir- 
cumstances : his only safety consists in the fact that his owner may 
bring suit and recover the price of his body, in case his life is taken, or 
his limbs rendered unfit for labor. 

8. Slaves cannot redeem themselves, or obtain a change of masters, 
though cruel treatment may have rendered such a change necessary 
for their personal safety. 

9. The slave is entirely unprotected in his domestic relations. 

10. The laws greatly obstruct the manumission of slaves, even 
■where the master is willing to enfranchise them. 

11. The operation of the laws tends to deprive slaves of religious 
instruction and consolation. 

12. The whole power of the laws is exerted to keep slaves in a state 
of the lowest ignorance. 

13. There is in this country a monstrous inequality of law and right. 
What is a trifling fault in a white man, is considered highly criminal 
in the slave ; the same offences which cost a white man a i'ew dollars 
only, are punished in the negro with death. 

14. The laws operate most oppressively upon free people of color. — 
Appeal in favor of that class of Americans called fifricans. 

SARAH M. GRIMKE.— ANGELINA E. GRIMKE. 

Let them protest against the use of the national prisons for the 
iniquitous purpose of confining slaves, and free people of color taken 
up on suspicion of being runaways. Let Northerners petition for the 
abolition of slavery in the territory of Florida, and the entire breaking up 
of the intcr-state slave-trade. Let them respectfully ask for an altera- 
tion in that part of the constitution by which they are bound to assist 
the South in quelling servile insurrections. Let them see to it that they 
send no man to congress who would give his vote to the admission of 
another slave state into the national Union. Let them protest against 
the injustice and cruelty of delivering the fugitive slave back to his 
master, as being a direct infringejncnt of the Divine command. Dcut. 
xxiii, 15, 16. Let thein petition their diftcrent legislatures to grant a 
jurv trial to the friendless, helpless runaway, and tor th3 repeal of those 
laws wliich secure to the slaveholder his legal right to his slave, after he 
has voluntarily brought him within the verge of their jurisdiction, and 



CONSTITUTION OF ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY. 57 

for the enactment of such laws as will protect the colored man, woman, 
and child, from the fangs of the kidnapper, who is constantly walking 
about in the northern stages, seeking whom he may devour. Let the 
northern churches refuse to receive slaveholders at their communion 
tables, or to permit slaveholding ministers to enter their pulpits. Let 
those northern ministers who go to the South "Cry aloud and spare 
not, lift up their voices like a trumpet and show the people their trans- 
gressions, and the house of Jacob their sins ;"— let them refuse to 
countenance the system of slavery by owning slaves themselves. 
Let northern men who go to the South to make their fortunes, see to it, 
that those fortunes are not made out of the unrequited labor of the 
slave. Let northern merchants refuse to receive mortgages or take 
slaves, seeing that this is a virtual acknowledgement that man can hold 
man as property. Let them carefully avoid participating in any way 
in the Aiiican slave-trade. Let northern manufacturers refuse to 
purchase the cotton for the cultivation of which the laborer has re-- 
ceived no wages. Let the grocer refuse to buy the sugar and rice of 
the South, so long as " the hire of the laborers who have reaped down 
their fields is kept back by fraud," Let the merchant refuse to 
receive the articles manufactured out of slave-grown cotton, and let 
the consumer refuse to purchase either the rice, sugar, or cotton 
articles, to produce which has cost the slave his unpaid labor, his tears, 
and his blood. Every Northerner may in this way bear a faithful 
testimony against slavery at the South, by withdrawing his pecuinary 
support. 

CONSTITUTION OF THE AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY 
SOCIETY. 

Art. II. — The object of this Society is the entire abolition of slavery 
in the United States. While it admits that each state in which slavery 
exists, has, by the Constitution of the United States, the exclusive right 
to legislate in rea;ard to its abolition in said state, it shall aim to convince 
all our fellow-citizens, by arguments addressed to their understandings 
and consciences, that slaveholding is a heinous crime in the sight of 
God, and that the duty, safety, and best interests of all concerned, 
requires its immediate abandonment, without expatriation. The 
Society will also endeavor, in a constitutional way, to influence con- 
gress to put an end to the domestic slave-trade, and to abolish slavery 
m all those portions of our common country which come under its 
control, especially in the District of Columbia,— and likewise to prevent 
the extension of it to any state that may be hereafter admitted to the 
Union. 

Art. III. — This Society shall aim to elevate the character and con- 
dition of the people of color, by encouraging their intellectual, moral, 
and religious improvement, and by removing public prejudice, that 
thus they may, according to their intellectual and moral worth, share 
an pquality with the whites, of civil and religious privileges; but this 
Society will never, in any way, countenance the oppressed in vindi- 
cating their rights by resorting to physical force. 



68 NEW-ENG. A. S. SOCIETY OHIO A. S. CONVENTION. 



NEW-ENGLAND ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY. 

The constitution and the laws have left us the means to spread and 
to carry into effect the doctrine of human rights, of universal liberty. 
The law, at least, in the free states, allows the use of all means, except 
those which our own conscience would forbid ; the constitution of the 
New-England Anti-Slavery Society permits no others than such as 
are sanctioned by law, humanity, and religion. It is enough that we 
have freedom to speak and to print ; freedom peacefully to assemble, 
and associate, to consult, and to petition the government of the Union 
as well as the legislature of every state, and thus by individual and 
united exertion, to act upon the public mind. Thus armed with all 
the legitimate weapons of truth, we feel bound in conscience never to 
lay tliom down until the principle that man can hold property in man 
is effaced frotn our statute books, and held in abhorrence by public 
opinion. After the most careful examination, we are convinced that 
slavery is unjust in itself, and cannot be justified by any laws or cir- 
cumstances ; that it wars against Christianity, and is condemned by 
the Declaration of our Independence. We are convinced that it is 
injurious to every branch of industry, and more injurious still to the 
mind and character both of the master and the slave. Its existence is 
the chief cause of all our political dissensions ; it tends to unsettle the 
groundwork of our government, so that every institution, founded on 
the common ground of our Union, is like an edifice on a volcanic soil, 
ever liable to have its foundation shaken, and the whole structure 
consumed by subterraneous fire. The danger of a servile and a civil 
war is gaining every year, every day; for the annual increase of the 
slave population is more than sixty thousand ; and every day about 
two hundred children are born into slavery. As the more northern of 
tbe slave states, seeing the advantages of free labor, dispose of their 
slaves in a more southern market, and by degrees abolish servitude, 
the whole slave population, and with it the danger of a terrible revolu- 
tion are crowded together in the more southern states. Under all these 
threatening circumstances, what have the southern states, what has 
congress done, to avert the impending calamity from the Union ? 
Congress, which has full and exclusive power to abolish slavery in the 
District of Columbia, and in the territories, and to abolish the domestic 
as well as the foreign slave-trade, shrinks from touching the subject 

OHIO ANTI-SLAVERY CONVENTION. 

The influence of slavery upon slaveholders and the slave states are, 
an abiding st-nse of insecurity and dread ; the press cowering under a 
censorship ; freedom of speech struck dumb by proscription ; a standing 
army of patrols to awe down insurrection ; the mechanic arts and all 
vigorous enterprise crushed under an incubus ; a thriftless agriculture, 
smiting the land WMth barrenness and decay ; industry held up to 
scorn ; idleness a badge of dignity ; profligacy no barrier to favor ; lust 
emboldened by impunity; concubinage encouraged by premium, the 
high price of the mixed race operating as a bounty upon amalgamation ; 



ROBERT J. BRECKENRIDGE FRANCIS WAYLAND. 69 

prodigality, in lavishing upon the rich the plundered earnings of the 
poor, accounted high-souled generosity ; revenge regarded as the 
refinement ot honor ; aristocracy entitled republicanism, and despotism 
chivalry J sympathy deadened by scenes of cruelty rendered familiar; 
female amiableness transformed into fury by habits of despotic svvayj 
conscience smothered by its own unheeded monitions ; manhood 
effeminated by loose-reined indulgence, and a pervading degeneracy 
of morals and manners, resulting from a state of society where power 
has no restraint, and the weak have none to succor. 

ROBERT J. BRECKENRIDGE. 

Just and equal ! what care I, whether my pockets are picked, or the 
proceeds of my labor are taken from me ? What matters it whether 
my horse is stolen, or the value of him in my labor be taken from me? 
Do we talk of violating the rights of masters, and depriving them of 
their property in their slaves? And will some one tell us, if there be 
any thing in which a man has, or can have, so perfect a right of 
property, as in his oM'n limbs, bones, and sinews? Out upon such 
folly! The man who cannot see that involuntary domestic slavery, 
as it exists among us, is founded upon the principle of taking by force 
that which is another's, has simply no moral sense. 

We utter but the common sentiment of mankind when we say, none 
ever continue slaves a moment after they are conscious of their ability 
to retrieve their freedom. The constant tendency for fifty years has 
been to accumulate the black population upon the southern states; 
already in some of them the blacks exceed the whites, and in most of 
them increase above the increase of the whites in the same states, 
with a ratio that is absolutely startling ; [the annual increase in the 
United States is sixty thousand ;] the slave population could bring into 
action a larger portion of efficient men, perfectly inured to hardships, to 
the climate, and privations, than any other population in the world ; 
and they have in distant sections, and on various occasions, manifested 
alread}' a desperate purpose to shake off the yoke. In such an event 
we ask not any heart to decide where would human sympathy and 
earthly glory stand ; we ask not in the fearful words of Jefferson, what 
attribute of Jehovali would allow him to take part with us ; we ask 
only — and the answer settles the argument — which is like to be the 
stronger side? 

Nature, and reason, and religion unite in their hostility to this system 
of folly and crime. How it will end, time only can reveal ; but the 
light of heaven is not clearer than that it must end. — Afncan Repository, 
Jan. 1834. 

FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

Its effects must be disastrous upon the morals of both parties. By 
presenting objects on whom passion can be satisfied without resistance 
and without redress, it cultivates in the master, pride, anger, cruelty, 
selfishness, and licentiousness. By accustoming the slave to subject 
his moral principles to the will of another, it tends to abolish in him 



60 ALONZO POTTER WILLIAM E. CHANNING. 

all moral distinction, and thus fosters in him, lying, deceit, hypocrisy, 
dishonesty, and a willingness to yield himself up to minister to the 
appetite of his master — Moral Scimce. 

ALONZO POTTER. 

Brethren, if God so loved us, we ou^ht also to love one another. 
This is the argument on which 1 would rely, in asking your charity 
this evening. The neglected and ill-fated race for whom 1 plead, are 
brethren with us of one family. The hand of the Creator may have 
imprinted on their features, a hue and complexion less delicate than 
ours. Man's rapacity may have torn them from their native land, and 
reduced them to the condition of slaves and menials here. And 
weighed down by oppression, bereft of hope, and having none to care 
for their souls, they may, too often, have sunk into vice and debase- 
ment. But, my friends, standing in this holy place — in his immediate 
presence, who has made of one blood all the nations of the earth, and 
given his Son to be a ransom for the inhabitans of every one alike ; I 
can listen to no such facts as an excuse tor apathy or avarice. It" this 
unfortunate people have a physical nature less peifect than ours, God 
forbid that tliis, their misfortune, should be imputed to them as their 
crime. Still they have all the attributes of men — ''the same organs, 
dmiensions, senses, affections, passions. They are fed with the same 
food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, warmed 
and cooled by the same winter and summer," that a white man is. — 
Discourse before the African School Society^ Schenectady JV*. F. 

WILLIAM E. CHAINING. 

With the free we are to plead his cause. And this is peculiarly our 
duty, because we have bound ourselves to resist his efforts for his own 
emancipation. We suffer him to do nothing for himself The more, 
then, should be done for him. Our physical power is pledged against 
him in case of revolt. Then our moral power should be exerted for 
his relief. His weakness, which we increase, gives him a claim to the 
only aid we can afford, to our moral sympathy, to the free and faithful 
exposition of his wrongs. As men, as Christians, as citizens, we have 
duties to the slave, as well as to every other member of the community. 
On this point we have no liberty. The eternal law binds us to take 
the side of the injured ; and this law is pecuharly obligatory, when we 
forbid him to lift an arm in his own defence. 

There is, however, there must be, in slaveholding commimities a 
large class which cannot be too severely condemned. There arc many 
we fear, very many, who hold their ft-llow-creatures in bondage, from 
selfish, base motives. They hold the sl.ive for gain, whether justly or 
unjustly they neither ask nor care. They cling to him as prop<rty, 
and have no faith in the principles which will diminish a man's wealth. 
They hold him, not for his own good or the safety of Jie state, but 
with precisely the same views \\ith which they hold a laborin£ hoise, 
that .s, tor the profit which they can wring from him. They will not 
hear a word of his wrongs ; for, wronged or not, they will not let lum 



JAMES G. BIRNEY. 61 

go. He is tlieir property, and they mean not to be poor for righteous- 
ness' sake. Such a clasn there undoubtedly is among slaveholders ; 
how large their own consciences must determine. We are sure of it ; 
for under such circumstances human nature will and must come to this 
mournful result. Now, to men of this spirit, the explanations we have 
made do in no degree apply. Such men ought to tremble before the 
rebukes of outraged humanity and indignant virtue. Slavery, upheld 
for gain, is a great crime. He, who has nothing to urge against eman- 
cipation, but that it will make him poorer, is bound to immediate eman- 
cipation. He has no excuse for wresting from his brethren their rights. 
The plea of benefit to the slave and the state avails him nothing. He 
extorts, by the lash, that labor to which he has no claim, through a base 
selfishness. Every morsel of food, thus forced from the injured, ought 
to be bitterer than gall. His gold is cankered. The sweat of the 
slave taints the luxuries for which it streams. Better were it for the 
selfish wrong doer of whom I speak, to live as the slave, to clothe him- 
self in the slave's raiment, to eat the slave's coarse food, to till his 
fields with his own hands, than to pamper himself by day, and pillow 
his head on down at night, at the cost of a wantonly injured fellow- 
creature. 

I know it will be said, "You would make us poor." Be poor, then, 
and thank God for your honest poverty. Better be poor than unjust. 
Better beg than steal. Better live in an almshouse, better die than 
trample on a fellow-creature and reduce him to a brute, for selfish 
gratification. What ! have we yet to learn that " it profits us nothing 
to gain the whole world, and lose our souls ?" 

JAMES G. BIRNEY. 

There would be no danger of personal violence to the master from 
emancipation, brought about by Christian benevolence. Such an ap- 
prehension is the refuge of conscious guilt. Emancipation, brought 
about on the principle above mentioned, I hesitate not to say, would, 
in most instances, where the superior intelligence of the master was 
acknowledged, produce on the part of the beneficiaries, the most entire 
and cordial reliance on his counsel and friendship. I do not believe 
that I have any warmer friends than my manumitted slaves — none, I 
am sure, if sacrifices were called for, who would more freely make 
them, to promote my happiness. 

The injustice which the slave feels as done him in taking the avails 
of his labor, leads him to take clandestinely, what he persuades himself 
he is entitled to. He has comparatively no character to lose, no u!ti- 
"mate object, for the attainment of which, the building up of a good 
character would contribute. As a freeman, character would be essen- 
tial to him — his earnings would be his ; his house, his furniture, his 
comforts would be his — his wife, his children would be his; the appre- 
hension of forcible separation would depart, and he would have every 
motive that ordinarily influences men to build up a good name for 
worth and honesty. The depredations on the masters' property by 
slaves, I should suppose, are tenfold what they would be by the ganio 
Blavea made freemen. — Reply to Queries of some Friench, 1835. 



62 J. T. WOODBURY E. LEWIS E. C. DELEVAN. 



JAMES T. WOODBURY. 

We can vote slavery down in Columbia and in our territones. 
"But," it is objected, "it will dissolve the Union." Mr. Birney says, 
the South never will do it, for they cannot support themselves, and we 
are more liable to go there and fight, to keep their slaves in subjection. 
The slaves, if they are freed, will not come here, their labor is wanted 
in the South. The South do not hate the black, skin with which God 
has covered them, as we do. "But O they smell bad." No bad smell 
while they are slaves ; they are about the persons of tlieir masters and 
mistresses, and nurse their children, and do not scent them with the 
bad smell, — but as soon as they are free — bad smell. 

EVAN LEWIS. 

Much has been said by the advocates and apologists of slavery, 
about the i/ang-er of emancipation — that it would be accompanied or 
followed by insurrections, massacres, and servile war. Now no sane 
man desires to turn loose upon society, a horde of ignorant men, either 
white or black, without the salutary restraints of Jaw. We wish to 
see the assumed right of property in human flesh abolished, and the 
laws made for the protection, as well as for the government and re- 
straint, of every man of every nation and color. To place every man 
under the protection of the law, and to abolish that licentiousness and 
tyranny which are now tolerated, would be to restore society to its 
natural order, and give every man an interest in the preservation of the 
peace and harmony of the community. All fear of hostility and 
temptations to excite insurrections, or to shed the blood of the white 
men, would be banished with the removal of the cause which produce 
them. In all cases where the experiment has been tried, [in the West 
Indian Islands,] our reasoning from the nature of man, and the in- 
fluence which just treatment will always exert on his moral character, 
has been proved by universal facts. — Genius of Universal Emancipation. 

EDWARD C. DELEVAN. 

I am glad to say that I have already joined the " Anti-Slavery So- 
ciety." I have long felt that it was my duty to do so, and I have only 
been deterred by the fear of injuring the cause of Temperance, with 
which cause you know my name has in some measure been identified. 
I have, in fact, been practising that kind of expediency, which I have 
been so ready to condemn in others, with regard to the cause of Tern- " 
perance. I have joined the " Anti-Slavery Society," for the reason that 
I believe it to be doing about all that is now attempted for the relief of 
our country from the sin of slavery, for that slavery, as it now exists in 
these United States is a high handed sin I have no doubt. Other 
societies may be doing much for Africa, and for the elevation of free 
colored people ; but, for the final relief of our beloved country and our 
enslaved brethren, your society, among human instrumentalities, now 
eeems to me the only hope. That the Anti-Slavery Society may be 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 63 

the instrument under God, by kind arguments and Christian entreaty, 
not only of enlightening the pubhc opinion of the north as to the sin 
and evil of slavery, but, what is of still greater moment, of affecting 
the hearts of our christian brethren of the south and leading them as a 
matter of interest, as well as duty, to rid themselves of a curse, and our 
country of its deepest stain, shall be my daily prayer. — Letter to Gerrit 
Sinitli. 

WILLIAM LEGGETT. 

The opinions of the southern people themselves, with respect to the 
perfect right which every American citizen possesses, to discuss the 
subject of slavery, have undergone a world-wide cliange in the course 
of a few years. If they will look into the writings of Jefferson and 
Madison, they will find that those great men, though southerners and 
slaveholders, not only did not claim any such right of interdicting the 
subject as is now set up, but exercised it very freely themselves. If 
they will turn to the record of the debate which took place in congress 
in 1790, on the question of committing the memorial of the Society of 
Ftiends against the slave-trade, they will find that Mr. Madison ex- 
plained the obligations of the federal compact, in a very different man- 
ner from that which it is the fashion of the present day to interpret 
them. They will find that, in the review which he entered in'^o of the 
circumstances connected with the adoption of the constitution , he very 
clearly showed that the powers of congress were by no means as limit- 
ed as it is now contended that they are. They will find that, in speak- 
ing of the territories of the United States, he expressly declared, from 
his knowledge, as well of the sentiments and opinions of the me:nbers 
of the convention, as of the true meaning and force of the terms of the 
compact, that there " congress have certainly the power to regulate 
the subject of slavery." It is fortunate that Madison and Jefferson did 
not live to this day, or they would have been denounced as abolitionists, 
fanatics, and incendiaries, and every thing else that is bad. Lieu- 
tenant Governor Robinson would no doubt have honored them with a 
place in his message, as ring-leaders of his "organized band of 
conspirators." 

But though Madison and Jefferson are gone, the spirit which ani- 
mated them still glows in many a freeman's bosom ; while one spark 
of it remains, the South will storm and rave in vain, for it never can 
induce the northern states to give up freedom for the sake of union ; to 
give up the end for the sake of the means ; to give up the substance 
for the sake of the shadow. — The Plaindealer. 



64 



"Hail Columbia ! Happt Land ! ! !" 




AUTHENTIC ACCOUNTS OF UNITED STATES' 
SLAVERY. 

" A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring 
^rth good fruit. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them." 



JAMES H. DICKEY. 

In the summer of 1822, as I returned with my family from a visit to 
the Barrens of Kentucky, I witnessed a scene such as I never witness- 
ed before, and such as I liope never to witness again. Ravins passed 
through Paris, in Bourbon county, Ky., the sound of music (beyond a 
little rising ground) attracted my attention ; I looked forward and saw 
the flag of my country waving. Supposing that I was about to meet a 
military parade, I drove hastily to the side of the road ; and having 
gained the top of the ascent, I discovered (I suppose) about forty black 
men all chained together after the following manner; each of them 
was handcuffed, and they were arranged in rank and file. A chain, 
perhaps forty feet long, the size of a fifth-horse-chain, was stretched 
between the two ranks, to which short chains were joinod, which con- 
nected with the handcuffs. Behind them were, I suppose, about thirty 
women in double rank, the couples tied hand to hand. A solemn sad- 
ness sat on every countenance, and the dismal silence of this march of 



GEORGE WHITFIELD. 66 

despair was interrupted only by the sound of two violins ; yes, as if to 
add insult to injury, the foremost couple were furnished with a violin 
apiece ; the second couple were ornamented with cockades, while near 
the centre waved the republican flag carried by a hand literally in 
chains. I perhaps have mistaken some punctilios of the arrangement, 
for " my soul was sick," my feelings were mingled and pungent. As 
a man, I sympathized with suffering humanity ; as a Christian, I 
mourned over the transgressions of God's holy law ; and as a. republi- 
can, I felt indignant to see the flag of my beloved country thus insult- 
ed. I could not forbear exclaiming to the lordly driver who rode at his 
ease along side : " Heaven will curse that man who engages in such 
traffic, and the government that protects him in it." I pursued my 
journey till evening, and put up for the night. When I mentioned 
the scene I had witnessed, "Ah!" cried my landlady, "That is my 
brother." From her I learned that his name is Stone, of Bourbon 
county, Kentucky, in partnership with one Kinningham of Paris ; and 
that a few days before he had purchased a negro woman from a man 
in Nicholas county ; she refused to go with him ; he attempted to 
compel her, but she defended herself. Without further ceremony, he 
stepped back, and by a blow on the side of her head with the butt of 
his whip brought her to the ground ; he tied her, and drove her off^ 

GEORGE WHITFIELD. 
As I lately passed through your provinces in my way hither, I was 
sensibly touched with a fellow-feeling for the miseries of the poor 
negroes. Whether it be lawful for Christians to buy slaves, and 
thereby encourage the nations from whom they are bought to be at 
perpetual war with each other, I shall not take upon me to determine. 
Sure I am it is sinful, when they have bought them, to use them as 
bad as though they were brutes, nay worse ; and whatever particular 
exceptions there may be (as I would charitably hope there are some) 
I fear the generality of you, who own negroes, are liable to such a 
charge ; for your slaves, I believe, work as hard, if not harder than the 
horses whereon you ride. These, after they have done their work, are 
fed and taken proper care of; but many negroes when wearied with 
labor on your plantations, have been obliged to grind their corn after 
their return home. Your dogs are caressed and fondled at your table ; 
but your slaves, who are frequently styled dogs or beasts, have not an 
equal privilege. They are scarce permitted to pick up the crumbs 
which fall from their master's table. Not to mention what numbers 
have been given up to the inhuman usage of cruel taskmasters, who, 
by their unrelenting scourges have ploughed their backs, and made 
long furrows, and at length brought them even unto death. When 
passing along I have viewed your plantations cleared and cultivated, 
many spacious houses built, and the owners of them faring sumptu- 
ously every day, my blood has frequently almost run cold within me, 
to consider how many of your slaves had neither convenient food to 
eat nor proper raiment to put on, notwithstanding most of the comforts 
you enjoy were solely owing to their indefatigable labors. — Letter to 
the inhabitants of Maryland, Virginia, Jforth and South Carolina, 1739. 



66 JOHN RANKIN, 



JOHN RANKIN. 

In connexion with their extreme suffering occasioned by want of 
clothing, I shall notice those which arise from want of food. As the 
making of grain is the main object of their mancipation, masters will 
sacnfice as little as possible in giving them food. It often happens 
that what will barely keep them alive, is all that a cruel avarice will 
allow them. Hence, in some instances, their allowance has been 
reduced to a single pint of corn each, during the day and night. And 
in some places the best allowance is a peck of corn each during the 
week, while perhaps they are not permitted to taste meat so much as 
once in the course of seven years, except what httle they may be able 
to steal ! Thousands of them are pressed with the ^nawings of cruel 
hunger during their whole lives — an insatiable avarice will not grant 
them a single comfortable meal to satisfy the cravings of nature! 
Such cruelty far exceeds the powers of description! 

The slaveholder has it in his power to violate the chastity of his 
slaves. And not a few are beastly enough to exercise such power. 
Jlence it happens, that in some families it is difficult to distinguish the 
free children from the slaves. It is sometimes the case, that the largest 
part of the master's own cliildren are born, not of his wife, but of the 
wives and daughters of his slaves, whom he has basely prostituted as 
well as enslaved. His poor slaves are his property, and, therefore, 
must yield to his lusts as well as to his avarice ! He may perpetrate 
upon them the most horrid crimes, and they have no redress ! The 
wretched slave must, without a murmuring word, give up his wife, or 
daughter, for prostitution, should his master be vile enough to demand 
her of him ! It must be a horrid crime for any state to give one man 
such power over another, and such crime has every slaveholding state 
committed. I am far from wishing to intimate that this power is 
generally so grossly exercised as it might be. Some slaveholders are, 
doubtless, as chaste as any other people, and conscientiously endeavor 
to preserve the chastity of their slaves ; but I wish to show the extent 
of the power with which they are vested, and the shocking manner in 
which it is sometimes exercised. 

In this place I will further remark, that slavery not merely puts the 
chastity of the slave in the power of the master, but also exposes it to 
attacks from every lecherous class of men. Slaves cannot bear testi- 
mony against people that are white and free — hence a wide door is 
opened for the practice, both of violence and seduction, without detec- 
tion ; and the consequences of this are exceedingly manifest in every 
slaveholding country — every town and its vicinity soon become crowded 
with mulattoes. In this respect slavery is the very sink of lilthiness, 
and the source of every hateful abomination. It seems to me astonish- 
ing that any government, much more that of the United States, should 
sanction such a source of monstrous crime as slavery evidently is! 

A wealthy citizen of Georgia purchased, on shipboard, six African 
girls, who probably were directly from Africa, and having brought them 
home, he put them into the hands of his overseer, and ordered him to 
assign them a certain portion of labor during each day of the week, 



JOHN RA.NKlN. 67 

and in case they should fail to perform it, he vvus commanded to give 
them a considerable number of lashes each, and add the remainder of 
the task to the next day's labor, and in case they should fail to perform 
the whole, he was ordered to add to the number of lashes in proportion 
to the failure, and siill to add the deficiency to the next day's labor, 
and thus he was daily to increase both the labor and stripes in case of 
failure. Tiie overseer, hard-hearted as he was, expostulated with him, 
and assured him that the labor was more than the girls were able to 
perform, but he swore with a tremendous oath that they should do it 
or die. The poor creatures commenced the dreadful task, but being 
unaccustomed to such labor, their hands were soon worn to the quick ; 
this they endured with patience, and did all they could to perform what 
was assigned them, but they were totally unable to accomplish it ; they 
failed on the first day, and received the cruel lashes. The next morning, 
with sore backs and bleeding hands they attempted the enlarged task 
— their hoehandles were soon made red with their innocent blood — - 
they labored with great assiduity, but they could not perform the un- 
reasonable task, and consequently received the enlarged number of 
lashes. On the third morning they commenced again, but the task 
was so much enlarged that all hope of performing it \\^as entirely 
precluded, and the enormously increased number of lashes became 
certain — the unhappy creatures despaired of life, and concluded that 
they must inevitably die under the torturing lash, unless they could 
despatch themselves in some other method. This appeared to be the 
only means of escaping the most terrible cruelty. Hence they formed 
and executed the dreadful design of hanging themselves. The horn 
blew for dinner, all started to their huts, but these unfortunate girls 
lingered behind, and unobserved by the rest of the company turned 
aside into a thicket, and there all six hanged themselves! They were 
soon missed, and search was quickly made for them — they were im- 
mediately found, and the cruel master enraged by the disappointment 
and loss, made every possible exertion to bring them back to life, that 
they might again fall under the weight of his vengeance ! but all his 
attempts were in vain — their souls were gone into an awful eternity, 
and had their eternal destiny unalterably fixed ! And being exceed- 
ingly exasperated on finding that they had escaped from his hand, he 
ordered a hole to be dug for them, and caused them to be tumbled into 
it like mere animal carcasses, while he vented the most awful impre- 
cations upon them ! And the overseer was ordered to exact from the 
rest of his slaves what labor he intended them to perform. 

A certain citizen of Kentucky purchased a piece of furniture, and 
after he brought it home, his wife unfortunately broke some small part 
of it, and that in the presence of a neighboring gentleman ; she never- 
theless charged it upon a black girl of about seventeen years of age. 
The girl honestly declared her innocence, but the mistress persisted in 
her charge against her. At length the brutish master seized the poor 
unfortunate girl, drew her clothes up over her head, hanged her by 
them to the limb of a tree, and in that shamefid position whipt her 
several times very severely. By the extremity of torture she was 
sometirneB forced to say that she did break the furniture, but in the 



68 DISCUSSION IN LANE SEMINARY. 

moment of respite, she would honestly deny it again — and this subjected 
her to more torture. Fortunately for the poor girl the gentleman who 
was present when tlie mistress broke the furniture, happened to be 
passing by — ho paused in amazement at the shocking scene — he soon 
discovered the cause of the cruelty — indignation overcame him — he 
approached the brutish master and told him that his own wife had 
broken the furniture in his presence, and declared that if he did not 
cease from torturing the poor girl he would give him as much as he 
had given her — with this the shameless monster thought it necessary to 
comply, and for that time the poor girl was released from his torturing 
hand. The gentleman who rescued the girl and stated this fact, is 
now a resident of the state of Ohio, and is known to btj a man of truth. 
"In the county of Livingston, Ky., near the mouth of the Cumber- 
land, lived Lilburn Lewis, a sister's son of the venerable Jefferson. 
He, who ' suckled at fair Freedom's breast,' was the wealthy owner 
of a considerable number of slaves, whom he drove constantly, fed 
sparingly, and lashed severely. The consequence was, they would 
run away. This must have given to a man of spirit and a man of 
business great anxieties until he found them, or until they had starved 
out and returned. Among the rest was an ill grown boy about seventeen, 
who having just returned from a skulking spell, was sent to the spring 
for water, and in returning let fall an elegant pitcher. It was dashed 
to shivers upon the rocks. This was the occasion. It was night, and 
the slaves all at home. The master had them collected into the most 
roomy negro house, and a rousing fire made. When the door was 
secured, that none might escape, either through fear of him or sympathy 
with George, he opened the design of the interview, namely, that they 
might be effectually taught to stay at home and obey his orders. All 
things being now in train, he called up George, who approached his 
master with the most unreserved submission. He bound him with 
cords, and by the assistance of his younger brother, laid him on a broad 
bench, or meat block. He now proceeded to whang off George by 
the ancles!! It was with the broad axe! — In vain did the unhappy 
victim SCREAM AND ROAR ! He was completely in his master's power. 
Not a hand amongst so many durst interfere. Casting the feet into 
the fire, he lectured them at some length. He av hacked him off 
below the knees! George roaring out, and praying his master to 
BEGIN AT THE OTHER END ! Ho admonished them again, throwing 
the legs into the fire! Then above the knees, tossing the joints into 
the fire ! He again lectured them at leisure. The next stroke severed 
the thighs from the body. These were also committed to the flames. 
And so off the arms, head, and trunk, until all ^vas in the fire ! Still 
protracting the intervals with lectures, and threat enings of like punish- 
ment in case of disobedience, and running away, or disclosure of this 
tragedy. Nothing now remained but to consume the flesh and bones ; 
and for this purpose the fire was briskly stirred, until two hours after 
midnight. WILLIAM DICKEY." 



A member of Lane Seminary, from Alabama, speaking of the 
cruelties practised upon the slaves, said — "At our house it is so 



LETTER TO MR. TAPPAN. 69 

common to hear their screams from a neighboring plantation, that we 
think nothing of it. The overseer of this plantation told me one day, 
he laid a young woman over a log, and beat her so severely that she 
was soon after delivered of a dead child. A bricklayer, a neighbor of 
ours, owned a very smart young negro man, who ran away; but was 
caught When his master got him home, he stripped him naked, tied 
him up by his hands, in plain sight and hearing of the academy and 
the public green, so high that his feet could not touch the ground ; thea 
tied them together, and put a long board between his legs to keep him 
steady. After preparing him in this way, he took a paddle, bored it 
full of holes, and commenced beating him with it. He continued it 
leisurely all day. At night his flesh was literally pounded to a jelly. 
It was two weeks before he was able to walk. No one took any 
notice of it. No one thought any wrong was done," 

"Mr. , of Missouri, amongst others, related the following: — 

" A young woman who was generally very badly treated, after receiving 
a more severe whipping than usual, ran away. In a few days she 
came back, and was sent into the field to work. At this time, the 
garment next her skin was stiff like a scab, from the running of the 
sores made by the whipping. Towards night, she told her master 
that she was sick, and wished to go to the house. She went ; and as 
soon as she reached it, laid down on the floor exhausted. The mistress 
asked her what the matter was? She made no reply. She asked 
again; but received no answer. 'I'll see,' said she, 'if I can't make 
you speak.' So taking the tongs, she heated them red hot, and put 
them upon the bottoms of her feet ; tlien upon her legs and body ; and, 
finally, in a rage, took hold of her throat. This had the desired effect. 
The poor girl faintly whispered, ' Oh, missee, don't — I am most gone ;* 
and expired." 

We want no other commentary on the state of feeling in that com- 
munity than this. The woman yet lives there, and owns slaves. 

A. Wattles. 

LETTER TO MR. TAPPAN. 

But let me turn your attention to another species of cruelty. About 
a year since, I knew a certain slave who had deserted his master, to be 
caught and for the first night fastened in the stocks. In those same 
stocks from which at midnight I have heard the cries of distress, while 
the master sUpt, and was dreaming perhaps of drinking wine and of 
discussing the price of cotton. On the next morning he was chained 
in an immoveable posture, and branded in both cheeks, with red hot 
stamps of iron. Such are the tender mercies of men who love wealth, 
and are determined to obtain it at any price. 

There was, some time since, brought to trial in this town, a planter 
residing about fifteen miles distant, for whipping his slave to death. 
You will suppose of course that he was punished. No sir, he was 
acquitted, altlioush there could be no doubt of the fact. I heard the 
tale of murder from a man who was acquainted with all the circum- 
stances. " I was," said he, " passing along the road near the burying 
ground of the plantation, about nine o'clock at night, when I saw several 



70 CASES OF CRUELTY SCENE IN GEORGIA. 

lights gleaming through the woods — and as I approached, in order to 
see what was doing, i beheld the coroner of Natchez with a number 
of men, standing around the body of a young female, which by the 
torches seemed almost perfectly white. On inquiry I learned that the 
master had so unmeicifully beaten this girl that she died under the 
operation. And that also he had so severely punished another of his 
slaves that he was but just alive. — Letter to Mr. Tappan from 
J^atchez, 1831. 

CASES OF CRUELTY. 

Mr. William Ladd, known as a friend T)f colonization and an oppo- 
nent of Anti-Slavery Societies, and not likely, tliereforc to exaggerate, 
but rather to soften the harsh features of the system, alludes pubhcly 
to the following, among other horrors which he has witnessed: A 
gentleman of his acquaintance, was offended with a female slave. He 
seized her by the arm, and thrust her hand into the fire, and there he 
held it until it was burnt off. " I saw," said Mr. Ladd, " the withered 
stump," — Address at Colonization Society of Massachusetts, 1833. 

" Mr. Sutcliff^ an English Gluaker, who travelled in this country, 
relates a case very like that of the Kentucky girl, only that the catas- 
trophe was more shocking. A slave owner, near Lewistown, in the 
stale of Delaware, lost a piece of leather. He charged a little slave 
boy with stealing it. The boy denied. The master tied the boy's 
feet, and suspended him from the limb of a tree, attaching a heavy 
weight to his ancles, as is usual in such cases, to prevent such kicking 
and%vrithing as would break the blows. He then whipped ; the boy 
confessed; and then he commenced whipping anew for the offence 
itself. He was a kind master, and never whipped the lad again, for 
he died under the lash ! Then the slaveholder's own son, smitten with 
remorse, acknowledged that he took the leather. 

" An honorable friend, who stands high in the state and in the 
nation, was present at the burial of a female slave in Mississippi, who 
had been whipped to death at the post by her master, because she 
was gone longer of an errand to the neighboring town, than her 
master thought necessary. Under the lash she protested that she was 
ill, and was obliged to rest in the fields. To complete the chmax of 
horror, she was delivered of a dead infant before her master had com- 
pleted his work !" — Child's Despotism of Freedom. 

Scene in Georgia. — The two convicts were hung together ; and after 
they were quite dead, a consultation was held amongst the gentlemen, 
as to the future disposition of Billy, who, having bcenui the house 
where his master was murdered, and not having given immediate in 
formation of the fact, was held to be guilty of concealing the death ; 
and was accordingly sentenced to receive five hundred lashes. I was 
in the branches of a tree close by the place where this court was held, 
and distinctly heard its proceedings and judgment. Some went to the 
woods to cut hickories, whilst others stripped Billy and tied him to a 
tree. More than twenty long switches, some of them six or seven 
feet in length, had been procured ; and two men applied the rods at 



SCENE IN GEORGIA. 71 

the same time, one standing on each side of the culprit ; one of them 
using his left hand. I liad often seen black men whipped, and had 
always, where the lash was applied with great severity, heard the suf- 
ferer cry out and beg for mercy ; but in this case, the pain inflicted by 
these double blows of the hickory was so intense, that Billy never 
uttered so much as a groan ; and I do not believe he breathed for the 
space of two minutes after he received the first strokes. He shrunk 
his body close to the trunk of the tree, around which his arms and legs 
were lashed ; drew his shoulders up to liis head Uke a dying man, and 
trembled, or rather shivered, in all his members. The blood flowed 
from the commencement, and in a few minutes lay in small puddles 
at the root of the tree. I saw flakes of flesh as long as my finger fall 
out of the gashes in his back ; and I believe he was insensible during 
all the time that he was receiving the last two hundred lashes. Wiien 
the whole five hundred had been counted by the person appointed (o 
perform this duty, the half-dead body was unbound and laid in the 
shade of the tree upon which I sat The gentlemen who had done the 
whipping, eight or ten in number, being joined by their friends, then 
came under the tree, and drank punch until their dinner was made 
ready, under a booth of green boughs at a short distance. 

After dinner, Billy, who had been groaning on the ground where he 
was laid, was taken up, placed in the cart in which Lucy and Frank had 
been brought to the gallows, and conveyed to the dwelling of his late 
master, where he was confined to the house and his bed more than 
three months, and was never worth much afterwards, while I remained 
m Georgia. 

Certainly those who were hanged well deserved their punishment, 
but it was a very arbitrary exercise of power to whip a man until he 
was insensible, because he did not prevent a murder which was com- 
mitted without his knowledge ; and I could not understand the right 
of punishing him because he was so weak or timorous, as to refrain 
from a disclosure of the crime the moment it came to his ears. — Life 
of Charles Ball. 

[Those who ared esirous of witnessing a further exposition ot the 
legitimately bitter fruits of Slavery, are referred to " American 
Slavery as it is ; — Testimony of a Thousand Witnbsshs," for 
Bale at the Anti-Slavery Depositories.] 



72 



THE AFRICAN CHARACTER. 



MUNGO PARK. 

I was fully convinced, that whatever difference there is between the 
negro and the European, in the conformation of the nose, and the color 
of the skin, there is none in the genuine sympathies and characteristic 
feelings of our common nature. 

At Sego I should have been under the necessity of resting among 
the branches of the tree. About sunset, however, as I was preparing 
to pass the night in this manner, and had turned my horse loose, that 
he might graze at liberty, a woman, returning from the labors of the 
field, stopped to observe me. Perceiving that I was weary and de- 
jected, she inquired into my situation, which I briefly explained to her; 
whereupon, with looks of great compassion, she took up my saddle 
and bridle and told me to folJovv her. Having conducted me into her hut, 
she lighted a lamp, spread a mat on the floor, and told me I might 
remain there for the night. Findin;^ that I was hungry, she went out, 
and soon returned with a very fine fish, which being^roiled upon some 
embers, she gave me for supper. The women then resumed their 
task of spinning cotton, and lightened their labor with songs, one of 
which must have been composed extempore, for I myself was the sub- 
ject of it. It was sung by one of the young women, the rest joining in 
a kind of chorus. The air was sweet and plaintive, and the words 
literally translated, were these ; 

" The winds roar'd, and the rains fell , 
The poor white man, faint and weary, 
Came and sat under our tree. — 
He has no mother to bring him milk ; 
No wife to grind his corn. 



" Let us pity the white man ; 

No mother has he to bring him milk. 

No wife to grind his corn." 

Trifling as this recital may appear, the circumstance was highly 
affecting to a person in my situation. I was oppressed with such 
unexpected kindness, and sleep fled from my eyes. 

Mr. Park having travelled in company with a coffle of thirty-five 
slaves, thus describes his feelings as he came near the coast : " Al- 
though I was now approaching the end of my tedious and toilsome 
journey, and expected in anotjier day to meet with countrymen and 
friends, I could not part with my unfortunate fellow-travellers, — 
doomed as I knew most of them to be, to a life of slavery in a foreign 



MUNGO PARK. 78 

land, — without great emotion. During a peregrination of more than 
five hundred miles, exposed to the burning rays of a tropical sun, these 
poor slaves, amidst their own infinitely greater sufferings, would com- 
miserate mine, and frequently, of their own accord, bring water to 
quench my tliirst, and at night collect branches and leaves^'to prepare 
me a bed in the wilderness. We parted with mutual regret and bless- 
ings. My good wishes and prayers were all I could bestow upon 
them, and it afforded me some consolation to be told tliat they were 
sensible I had no more to give. 

On the other hand, it is impossible for me to forget the disinterested 
charity, and tender solicitude, with which many of these poor heathens, 
froni the sovereign of Sego, to the poor women who at different times 
received me into their cottages, sympathized with my sufferings, re- 
lieved my distress, and contributed to my safety. Perhaps this 
acknowledgement is more particularly due to the female part of the 
nation. Among the men, as the reader must have seen, my reception 
though generally kind, was sometimes otherwise. It varied according 
to the tempers of those to whom I made application. Avarice in 
some, and bigotry in others, had closed up the avenues to compassion ; 
but I do not recollect a single instance of hard-heartedness towards 
me in the women. In all my wanderings and wretchedness, I found 
them uniformily kind and compassionate ; and I can truly say, as 
Mr. Ledyard has eloquently said before me : — 

" To a woman I never addressed myself in the language of decency 
and friendship, without receiving a decent and friendly answer. If I 
was hungry or thirsty, wet or ill, they did not hesitate, like the men, 
to perform a generous action. In so free and so kind a manner did 
they contribute to my relief, that if I was thirsty, I drank the sweeter 
draught ; and if I were hungry, I ate the coarsest meal with a double 
rehsh." 

Adanson, who visited Senegal, in 1754, describes the negroes as 
sociable, obhging, humane, hospitable. " Their amiable simplicity," 
says he, " in this enchanting country, recalled to mc the idea of the 
primitive race of man ; I thought I saw the world in its infancy. They 
are distinguished by tenderness for their parents, and a great respect 
for the aged." Robin speaks of a slave at Martinico, who having 
gained money sufficient for his own ransom, preferred to purchase hia 
mother's freedom. 

Protart, in his history of Loango, acknowledges that the negroes 
on the coast, who associate with Europeans, are inclined to licentious- 
ness and fraud ; but he says those of the interior are humane, ©bilging, 
and hospitable. Golberry repeats the same praise, and rebukes the 
presumption of white men in despising "nations improperly called 
savage, among whom we find men of integrity, models of filial, con- 
jugal, and paternal affection, who know all the energies and refine- 
ments of virtue ; among whom sentimental impressions are more deep, 
because they observe, more than we, the dictates of nature, and know 
how to sacrifice personal interest to the ties of friendship." 



74 ALEXANDER U. EVERETT. 



ALEXANDER H. EVERETT. 

Sir, we are sometiines told that all these efforts will be unavailing — 
that the African is a degraded member of the human family — that a 
man with a dark skin and curled hair, is necessarily, as such, inca- 

Eable of improvement and civilization, and condemned by the vice of 
is physical conformation, to vegetate for ever in a state of hopeless 
barbarism. Mr. President, I reject, with contempt and indii^nation, 
this miserable heresy. In replymg to it, the friends of truth and hu- 
manity have not hitherto done justice to the argument. In order to 
prove that the blacks were capable of intellectual efforts, they have 

Gainfully collected a few imperfect specimens of what some of them 
ave done in this way, even in the degraded condition which they 
occupy at present in Christendom. Sir, this is not the way to treat 
the subject. Go back to an earlier period in the history of our race. 
See what the blacks were and what they did three thousand years 
ago, in the period of their greatness and glory, when they occupied 
the fore front in the march of civilization — when they constituted in 
fact the whole civilized world of their time. Trace this yeiy civihza- 
tioii, of which we are so proud, to its origin, and see where you will 
find it. We received it from our European ancestors : they had it 
from the Greeks and Romans, and the Jews. But, Sir, where did 
the Greeks and the Romans and the Jews get it? They derived it 
from Ethiopia and Egypt, — in one word, from Africa. Moses, we 
are told, was instructed in all the learning of the Egyptians. The 
founders of the principal Grecian cities, such as Athens, Thebes, and 
Delphi, came from Egypt, and for centuries afterwards, their descend- 
ants returned to th<it country, as the source and centre of civilization. 
There it was that the generous and stirring spirits of the time — Hero- 
dotus, Homer, Plato, Pythagoras, and the rest, made their noble voy- 
ages of intellectual and moral discovery, as ours now make them in 
England, France, Germany, and Italy.' Sir, the Egyptians were the 
masters of the Greeks and the Jews, and consequently of all the 
modern nations in civihzation, and they had carried it very nearly as 
far — in some respects, perhaps, a good deal further than anv subse- 
quent people. The ruins of the Egyptian temples laugh to scorn the 
architectural monuments of any other part of the worfd. They will 
be what they are now, the delight and admiration of travellers from all 
quarters, when the grass is growing on the sites of St Peter's and 
St. Paul's, — the present pride of Rome and London. 

Well, Sir, who were the Egyptians ? They were Africans :— and 
of what race? — It is sometimes pretended, that though Africaris, and 
of Ethiopian extraction, they were not black. But what savs the 
father of history, who had travelled among them, and knew their 
appearance, as well as we know that of our neighbors in Canada ? 
Sir, Herodotus tells vou that the Egyptians were^blacks, with curied 
hair. Some writers have unde-'taken to dispute his authoritv, but I 
cannot bring myself to believe that the father of liisfcrv did not know 
black from white. It --ems. tlifnfoiv, that for this vciv '.-ivilizatioa 
©f which we are so proud, and which is the only grouad of our present 



SHARP A CITIZEN OF THE WORLD l'oUVERTURE. 75 

daim of superiority, we are indebted to the ancestors of these very 
blacks, wlioin we are pleased to consider as naturally incapable of 
civilization. — Speech at JMassachusetts Colonizatim Society, Feb. 7, 1S33L 

ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 
That Africa, which is now more fruitful of monsters, than it was 
once for excellently wise and learned men, — that Africa, which formerly 
afforded us our Clemens, our Ori^j;en, our Teriuliian, our Cyprian, our 
Jiuguslin, and many other extraordinary lights in theChureh of God, — 
that famous Africa, in whose soil, Christianity did thrive so prodigiously, 
and could boast of so many flourishing churches, — alas ! is now aVilder- 
ness. "The wild boars have broken into the vineyard, and ate it up, 
and it brings ibrth nothing but briers and thorns," to use the words of 
the prophet. And who knows but God may suddenly make this 
church and nation, this our England, which, Jeshurun-like, is waxed 
fat and grown proud, and has kicked against God, such another example 
oj vengeance of this kind. — Speech in House of Commons, 

A CITIZEN OF THE WORLD. 

The sum of five thousand pounds sterling, stands invested for the 
mutual benefit of two very excellent institutions in London — the 
Magdalen Asylu-n and the b^oundling Hospital. It was bequeathed 
to them by one OMICHAND, a black merchant in Calcutta, who left 
many equally liberal donations to other charitable institutions in all 
parts of the world. 

Another. — A poor negro walking towards Deptford, Eng., saw 
by the road side an old sailor of a different complexion, with but one 
arm and two wooden legs. The worthy African immediately took 
three halfpence and a farthing, his little all, from the side-pocket of his 
tattered trowsers, and forced tiiem into the sailor's hand, while he wiped 
the tears from his eye with the corner of his blue patched jacket, and 
then walked away quite happy. — Sholto and Reuben Percy^s Anecdotes. 

TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE. 

Citizen Consul, — Your letter, of the 27th Brumaire, has been 
transmitted to me by Citizen Le Clerc, your brother-in-law, whom you 
have appointed Captain General of this island, a title not recognised 
by the Constitution of St. Domingo. The same messenger has restored 
two innocent children to the fond embraces of a doting father. What 
a noble instance of European humanity! But, dear as those pledges 
are to me, and painful as our separation is, I will owe no obligations to 
my enemies, and I therefore return them to the custody o^ their jailers. 

You ask me, do I desire consideration, honors, and fortune? Most 
certainly I do, but not of thy giving. INIy consideration is placed in 
the respect of my countrymen, my honors in their attachment, my 
fortune in their disinterested fideUty. Has this mean idea of personal 
aggrandizement been held out in the hope that I would be induced 
thereby to betray the cause I have undertaken ? The power I possess 
has been as legitimately acquired as your own, and nought but the 



76 PHILLIS WHEATLT. 

decided voice of the people of St. Domingo shall compel me to relin- 
quish it. 

It is not cemented by blood, or maintained by the artifices of Euro- 
pean policy. " The ferocious men whose persecutions 1 put a stop to," 
nave confessed my clemency, and I have pardoned the wretch whose 
dagger has been aimed at my hfe. If I have removed from this island 
cerlain turbulent spirits, who strove to feed the flames of civil war, 
their guilt has been first established before a competent tribunal, and 
finally confessed by themselves. Is there one of them who can say 
that he has been condemned unheard or untried 1 And yet these mon- 
sters are to be brought back once more, and, aided by the bloodhounds 
of Cuba, are to be uncoupled and hallooed to hunt us down and devour 
us ; and this by men who dare to call themselves Chnstians. — Letter 
to Bonaparte, 1803. 

"He was born a slave in St. Domingo, 1745. In his youth he was 
noted for his benevolence and tender feeling towards brutes, and his 
stability of temper. By assiduity he learnt to read, write and cipher, 
this, and his regular and amiable deportment, gained the esteem of 
his master, whom he saved in the revolution of 1791. That he never 
broke liis word was proverbial. His uidimited power he n-evcr abused. 
The French general, being unable to corrupt, abducted him to a 
dungeon in France, where he perished in 1803," — History of Hayti. 

Godwin, in his admirable Lectures on Colonial Slavery, says : " Can 
the West India Islands, since their first discovery by Columbus, boast 
a single name which deserves comparison with that of Toussaint 
L'Ouverture?" He is thus spoken of by Vincent in his Reflections on 
the State of St. Domingo: "Toussaint L'Ouverture is the most active 
and indefatigable man, of whom it is possible to form an idea. He is 
always present wherever difficulty or danger makes his presence 
necessary. His great sobriety, — the power of living without repose, — 
the facility with which he resumes the affairs of the cabinet, atf.?r the 
most tiresome excursions, — of answering daily a hundred letters, — 
and of habitually tiring five secretaries — render him so superior to 
all around him, that their respect and submission almost amount to 
fanaticism. It is certain no man in modern times has obtained such 
an influence over a mass of ignorant people, as General Toussamt 
possesses over his brethren of St. Domingo. He is endowed with a 
prodigious memory. He is a good father and a good husband." 

Toussaint, Thou hast left behind 

Powers that will work for thee ; air, earth and skies ; 

There's not a breathing of the common wind 

That will forget thee ; thou hast great allies. 

Thy friends are exultations, agonies, 

And love, and man's unconquerable mind. 

Wordsworth. 

PHILLIS WHEATLY. 

No more America, in mournful strain. 
Of wrongs and grievance unredressed complain ; 
No longer shalt ihou dread the iron chain 
Which wanton Tyranny, with lawless hand, 
Ha« made, and with it meant t' enslava the land. 



HISTORICAL EVIDENCE. 77 

Should yon, m_v lord, while you peruse my song. 
Wonder from whence my love of Freedom sprung, 
Whence flow these wishes for the common good, 
By feeling hearts alone best understood, 
I, young in life, by seeming cruel fai.e 
Was snatched from Afric's fancied happy seat : 
What pangs excrutiating must molest, 
What sorrows labor in my parent's breast ! 
Steeled was that soul, and by no misery moved, 
That from a father seized his babe beloved : 
Such, such my case. And can 1 then but pray 
Others may never feel tyrannic sway ] 



HISTORICAL EVIDENCE, 

Concerning the Effects of Immediate Emancipation* 

When the question of immediate abolition was first started in 
England, the friends of slavery vociferated nothing more loudly, than 
^e danger of universal insurrection and bloodshed ; and nothing took 
stronger hold of the sympathies and conscientious fears of the people, 
than these repeated assertions. This is precisely the state of things in 
our own country, at the present time. We all know that it is not 
according to human nature for men to turn upon their benefactors, 
and do violence, at the very moment they receive what they have long 
desired ; but we are so repeatedly told the slaves loill murder their 
masters, if they give them freedom, that we can hardly help believing 
that, in this peculiar case, the laws of human nature must be reversed. 
Let us try to divest ourselves of the fierce excitement now abroad in 
the community, and calmly inquire what is the testimony of history on 
this important subject. 

In June, 1793, a civil war occurred between the aristocrats and 
republicans of St. Domingo ; and the planters called in the aid of Great 
Britain, The opposing I'arly proclaimed freedom to all slaves, and 
armed them against the British. It is generally supposed that the 
abolition of slavery in St. Domingo was in consequence of insurrections 
anion o- t-ii3 slaves; but this is not true. It ivas entirely a measure of 
political expediency. And what were the consequences of this sudden 
and universal emancipation? Whoever will take the pains to search 
the histories of that island, will find the whole colored population 
remained faithful to the republican party which had given them freedom. 
The British were defeated, and obliged to evacuate the island. The 
sea beitig at that time full of British cruisers, the French had no time 
to attend" to St. Domingo, and the colonists were left to govern them- 
selves. And what was the conduct of the emancipated slaves, under 
these circumstances? About 500,000 slaves had instantaneously 
ceased to be property, and were invested with the rights of men ; yet 
there was a decrease of crime, and every thing went on quicay and 
prosperously. Col. Malenfant, who resided on the island, s'lys, in his 
historical memoir: "After this public act of emancipation, the negroes 
remained quiet both in the south and west, and they continued to work 
upon all the plantations. Even upon those estates which had been 
7* 



78 HISTORICAL EVIDENCE. 

abandoned by owners and managers, the neg^roes continued their labor 
where there were any agents to guide ; and where no white men were 
left to dnect them, they betook themselves to planting provisions. The 
colony was flourishing. The whites lived happy and in peace upon 
their estates, and the negroes continued to 'vork for them." 

General Lacroix, in his memoirs, speaking" of the same period, says: 
" The colony marched as by enchantment towards its ancient splendor ; 
cultivation prospered; every day produced perceptible proofs of its 
progress." 

This prosperous state of things lasted about eight years ; and would 
probably have continued to this day, had not Bonaparte, at the insti- 
gation of the old aristocratic French planters, sent an army to deprive 
the blacks of the freedom which they had used so well. It was the 
attempt to restore slavery, that produced all the bloody horrors of SL 
Domingo. Emancipation produced the most blessed effects. 

In June, 1794, Victor Hugo, a French republican general, retook 
the island of Guadaloupe from the British, and immediately proclaimed 
freedom to all the slaves. They were 85,000 in number, and the whites 
only 13,000. J^o disasteis whatever occurred in consequence of this step. 

On the lOth of October, 1811, the congre?s of Chili decreed that 
every child born after that day should be free. 

In 1821, the congress of Colombia emancipated all slaves who had 
borne arms in favor of the repubhc ; and provided for the emancipation 
in eighteen years of the whole slave population, amounting to 900,000, 

In September, 1829, the government of Mexico granted immediate 
and unqualified freedom to evei-y slave. In all these cases, not one 
instance of insurrection or bloodshed has ever been heard of, as the result 
of emancipation. 

In July, 1823, 30,000 Hottentots in Cape Colony, were emancipated 
from their long and cruel bondage, and admitted by law to all the 
rights and privileges of the white colonists. Outrages were predicted, 
as the inevitable consequence of freeing human creatures so completely 
brutalized as the poor Hottentots ; but all went on peaceably ; and as 
a gentleman facetiously remarked, " Hottentots as they were, they 
worked better for Mr. Cash, than they had ever done for Mr. Lnsh.^^ 

In the South African Commercial Advertiser of February, 1831, it 
is stated : " Three thousand prize negroes have received their freedom ; 
four hundred in one day ; but not the least difficulty or disaster occured. 
Servants found masters — masters hired servants — all gained homes, and 
at night scarcely an idler loas to be seen. — To state that sudden eman- 
cipation would create disorder and distress to those you mean to serve, 
is not reason, but the plea of all men adverse to abolition." 

On the 1st of August, 1834, the government of Great Britain eman- 
cipated the slaves in all her colonies, of which she had twenty ; seven- 
teen in the West Indies, and three in the East Indies. 

The numerical superiority of the negroes in the West Indies is great. 
In Jamaica there were 331,000 slaves, and only 37,000 whites. By 
the clumsy apprenticeship system, the old stimulus of the whip was 
taken away, while the new and better stimulus of wages was not 
applied. The negroes were aware that if they worked well they 



St. OOMINGO. 79 

stiould not be paid for it, and that if they worked ill they could not be 
flogged, as they had formerly been. Yet even under these disadvan- 
tageous circumstances, no difficulties occurred except in three of the 
islands ; and even there the difficulties were slight and temporary. 
The worst enemies of abolition have not yet been able to 
SHOW that a single drop of blood has been shed, or a single 
plantation fired, in consequence of emancipation, in all the 
British West Indies ! 

Antigua and Bermuda did not try the apprenticeship system ; but 
at once gave the stimulus of wages. In those islands not the slightest 
difficulties have occured. The journals of Antigua say : " The great 
doubt is solved ; and the highest hopes of the negro's friends are ful- 
filled. Thirty thousand men have passed from slavery into freedom, 
not only witliout the slightest irregularity, but witli the solemn and 
decorous tranquillity of a Sabbath !'' 

In Antigua there are 2,000 whites, 30,000 slaves, and 4,500 free 
blacks. 

Antigua and St. Christopher's are within gunshot of each other ; 
both are sugar grovving colonies ; and the proportion of blacks is less 
in St. Christopher's than it is in Antigua ; yet the former island has 
had some difficulty with tlle gradual system, wliile the quiet of the 
latter has not been disturbed for one hour by immediate emancipation. 
Do not these facts speak volumes ? 

The results of the British Emancipation Bill, in a pecuniary point 
of view, are truly surprising. To the astonishment of even the most 
sanguine friends of abolition, the plantations of the colonies are more 
productive, more easily managed and accepted as securities for higher 
sums on mortgage than ever they were under the slave system. It 
appears from an official statement, that, in the first quarter of the pre- 
sent year there is an increase over the average of the first quarter of 
the three years preceding (emancipation,) of the great staples of 
West Indian produce exported. 

From Georgetown, (Demerara,) 20 per cent increase, 
From Berbice, 50 per cent increase, 

and on coffee about 100 per cent ! 

The hundred million indemnity thus appears to have been a com- 
pensation of a novel kind, a compensation for being made richer. — 
J^ew York Evening Post. 

ST. DOMINGO. 

In most other countries we have ministers, or at least consuls to 
watch over the interests of our merchants ; but to send a minister or 
consul to St. Domingo would be so revolting to the feelings of our 
southern brethren, that they would probably threaten to dissolve the 
Union, and so our merchants are Itft to take care of their own interests 
there. It may be useful to compare the amount of those interests with 
the amount of their interests in certain other countries, where we have 
consuls, and in some instances ministers. 



80 JEAN PIERRE BOYER SIMON BOLIVAR AUSTRIA. 



JEAN PIERRE BOYER. 

The President of Hayti has received, with your letter of the 10th of 
October last, the diftbient pubhcations that you have sent him. 

His Excellency congratulates you on the perseverance with which 
you have pursued the work of abolition of slavery. The warmest 
desires of philanthropists accompany you in this ditficult enterprise, 
and the President of Hayti doubts not tliat this holy cause will con- 
clude by obtaining the tiiumph it merits. 

I seize, sir, this occasion of assuring you of the particular desire I 
entertain for the success of your glorious work, and renew the expres- 
sion of my high esteem. B. Ingixac. 

Letter to B. Lundy, JVou. 17, 1836. 

SIMON BOLIVAR. 

I beg as fervently of my country as I would for the lives of my chil- 
dren, that you will never consent that clime, or color, or creed, should 
make any distinction in your republic. — Address to the Senators of 
Colombia. 

Legislators ! Slavery is the infringement of all laws. A law having 
a tendency to preserve slavery, would be the grossest sacrilege. Man 
to be possessed by his fellow man ! — man to be made property of! 
The image of the Deity to be put under the yoke ! Let these usurpers 
show us their title-deeds ! — Jiddress to the Legislature of Bolivia and 
Peru. 

" This distinguished man, who was second to none for patriotism 
and political philanthropy that the last dozen centuries have produced, 
is no more. He has left an example worthy the imitation of all slave- 
holders of every country and clime. 

"In addition to his great and untiring efforts to break the chains of 
clerical and political bondage that oppressed his countrymen, he acted 
the part of perfect consistency in using his influence for the enfran- 
chisement of the African slaves, who were there reduced to abject ser- 
vility. We have been informed that, in the early stage of the Colom- 
bian revolution, he emancipated from 700 to 1,000 slaves; and that 
he strenuously and successfully urged the total abolition of slavery 
by the government. Since his death it is stated that he has freed 150 
more by will, who were still held by him, and who probably preferred 
remainmg with him while he lived. 

"Benjamin Lundt." 

AUSTRIA. 

Extract from an ordinance of his Imperial and Royal Majesty of 
Austria, dated 25th June, 1826. 

"In order to prevent Austrian subjects and vassals from partici- 
pating in any manner in the slave-trade, and in order to prevent slaves 
from bad treatment, his Imperial and Royal Majesty, in conformity 
with the existing laws of Austria (viz. section 16 of the Civil Code, 



RUSSIA FRANCE. 81 

which determines that every human being, in virtue of those rights 
which are recognised by reason, is to be considered a civil person, and 
that, therefore, slavery, and every exercise of power relative to the 
state of slavery, are not tolerated in the imperial and royal dominions,) 
and further, in conformity with section 78 of the first part of the Penal 
Code, which declares every hindrance of the exercise of personal 
liberty a crime of public violence — has been graciously pleased, by his 
sovereign resolution of ^Sth June, 1826, to determine and order as 
follows: — Art. I. Any slave, from the moment he treads on the soil of 
the Imperial and Royal Dominions of Austria, or even merely steps 
on board of an Austrian vessel, shall be free." 

Austrian Consulate General, New York, Oct. 18, 1830. 

L. Lederer. 

RUSSIA. 

Consular notice. — Certain individuals who, in defiance of the 
laws of their own country, still continue to engage in the African 
slave-trade, having given cause for suspicion that they intend to make 
use of the Russian flag as a protection against the right of search and 
seizure, mutually assumed and conceded by the powers participating 
in the treaty for the suppression of this nefarious traffic, tlie under- 
signed, the Russian Consul General, at New York, being specially 
instructed by his government, gives hereby public notice to all persons 
whom it may concern, that the Russian flag can in no case be resorted 
to without the previous permission of the In)perial Governmen;, and 
without legal authorization in due form, and in strict accordanr; with 
the laws of the empire ; that any proceeding to the contrary si.:. 11 be 
considered as afrmul, exposing the persons guilty of it to all its conse- 
quences ; and that no slave-trader, in any circumstances whatever, 
when seized under the Russian flag, or otherwise, can invoke the aid 
of the Imperial Government to screen him from just and well-merited 
punishment. 

Russe du Consulate General, New York, April 2, 1836. 

Alexis Eustaphietb. 

FRANCE. 
marselloise hymn. 

With luxury and pride surrounded, 

The vile insatiate despots dare 
(Their thirst of power aad gold unbounded) 

To mete and vend the light and air ; 
Like beasts of burden would they load us. 

Like demons bid their slaves adore ; 

But man is man, and who is more ? 
Then shall they longer lash and goad us ? 

O Liberty ! can man resign thee, 

Once having felt thy generous flame ? 
Can dungeon's bolts, or bars confine thee, 

Or whips thy noble spirit tame .' 
Too long the world has wept bewailing 

That falsehood's dagger tyrants wield ; 

But freedom is our sword and shield. 
And all their arts are unavailing ! 



82 MONTESQUIEU J. J. ROUSSEAU BUFFON. 



MONTESaUIEU. 

Slavery' is not useful either to the master or to the slave ; to the 
slave, because he can do nothing by virtue ; to the master, because 
he contracts with his slaves all sorts of evil habits, inures himself in- 
sensibly to neglect every moral virtue, and becomes proud, passionate, 
hard-hearted, violent, voluptuous, and cruel. The slave sees a society 
happy whereof he is not even a part ; he finds that security is 
established for others, but not for him : he perceives that his master 
has a soul capable of self-advancement, while his own is violently and 
for ever repressed. Nothing puts one nearer the condition of the 
beasts than always to see freemen and not to be free. Suck a person 
is the natural enemy of the society in which he lives. 

It is impossible to allow the negroes are men, because if we allow 
them to be men, it will begin to be believed that we are not Christians. 

JEAN JACaUES ROUSSEAU. 

To renounce our liberty is to renounce our quality of man, and with 
it all the rights and duties of humanity ; and no adequate compensation 
can possibly be made for such a sacrifice ; as it is in itself inicompati- 
ble with the nature of man, whose actions, when once he is deprived 
of his free will, must be destitute of all moiahty. In a word, a con- 
vention which stipulates for absolute authority on one side, and 
unlimited obedience on the other, must always be considered as vain 
a id contradictory. What right can my slave have that is not mine, 
si'.ce every thing that he has belongs to me; and to speak of the 
ri ht of me against myself is absolute nonsense. 

Thus in whatever light we view things, the right of slaverj' is found 
to be null ; not only because it is illegal, but because it can have no 
existence ; for the terms slavery and right contradict and exclude each 
other ; and be it from man to man, or from a man to a nation, it 
would be equally nonsensical to say — I make a covenant withyou entirely 
at your expense, and for my benefit ; I loill observe it as far as my inclina- 
tion leads me, and you shall observe it as Jar as I please.— [On the Social 
Contract.] 

BUFFON. 

Upon the whole, it is apparent that the unfortunate negroes are 
endowed with excellent hearts, and possess the seeds of every human 
virtue. I cannot write their history, without lamenting their misera- 
ble condition. Is it not more than enough to reduce men to slavery, 
and to oblige them to labor perpetually, without the capacity of 
acquiring property ? To these, is it necessary to add cruelty, and 
blows, ana to abuse them worse than brutes ? Humanity revolts 
against those odious oppressions which result from avarice, and which 
would have been daily renewed, had not the laws given a friendly 
check to the brutality of masters, and fixed limits to the suflerincrs of 
their slaves. They are forced to labor ; and yet the coarsest food is 
dealt out to them with a sparing hand. " They support," say their 
obdurate taskmasters, " hunger without inconvenience ; a single 



H. GREGOIRE. 83 

European meal is sufficient provision to a negro for three days ; how- 
ever little they eat or sleep they are always equally strong and equally 
fit for labor." How can men, in whose breasts a sin'gle spark, of 
humanity remains unextinguished, adopt sue « detestable maxims? 
How dare they by such barbarous and diabolicai arguments, attempt 
to paliate those oppressions which originate solely from their tiiirst of 
^old ? But let us abandon those hardened monsters to perpetual 
infamy and return to our subject. — J^aturd History. 

H. GREGOIRE. 

If, says Price, you have a right to make another man a slave, he 
has a ri^ht to make you a slave ; and if we have no right says Ramsay, 
to sell hin.1, no one has a right to purchase him. 

If ever negroes, bursting their chains, should come (which Heaven 
forbid) on the European coast, to drag whites of both sexes from their 
fanulies ; to chain ihem and conduct them to Africa, and mark them 
with a hot iron ; if whites stolen, sold, purchased by crimes, and 
placed under the guidance of merciless inspectors, were immediately 
compelled by the stroke of the whip, to work in a climate injurious to 
their health, where, at the close of each day, they could have no other 
consolation than that of advancing another step to the tomb — no other 
perspective than to suffer and to die in all the anguish of despair— if 
devoted to misery and ignominy, they were excluded from all the 
privileges of society, and declared legally incapable of judicial action, 
their testimony would not have been admitted even against the black 
class ; if driven from the sidewalks, they were compelled to mingle 
with the animals in the middle of the street — if a subscription were 
made to have them lashed in a mass, and their backs, to prevent gan- 
grene, covered with pepper and with salt — if the forfeit for killing them 
were but a trifling sum — if a reward were offei'^d for apprehendino" 
those who escape from slavery — if those who escape were hunted by a 
pack of liounds, trained to carnage — if, blaspheming the Divinity, 
the blacks pretended, that by their origin they had permission of 
Heaven to preach passive obedience and resignation to the whites — ij' 
greedy hireling writers published, that for this reason, just reprisals 
may be exercised against the rebellious whites, and that white slaves 
are happy, more happy than the peasants in the bosom of Africa ; — in 
a word, if all the arts of cunning and calumny, all the strength and 
fury of avarice, all the inventions of ferocity were directed against you, 
by a coalition of dogs, merchants, priests, kings, soldiers, and colonists, 
what cry of horror would resound through these countries '. To 
express it, new epithets would be sought ; a crowd of writers, and 
particularly of poets, would exhaust their eloquent lamentations, pro- 
vided that having nothing to fear, there was something to gain. 
Europeans, reverse this hypothesis, and see what you are ! 

Yes, I repeat it, there is not a vice, not a species of wickedness, of 
which Europe is not. guilty towards negroes, of which she has not shown 
tliein the example. ^Avenging God ! suspend thy ihunder, exhaust 
thy compassion, in giving her time and courage to repair, if possible, 
these horrors and atrocities. — Facnllies ofj^e^rocs. 



84 THE ABBE RAYNAL J. P. BRISSOT J. SWIFT. 



THE ABBE RAYNAL. 

Will it be said that he, who wants to make me a slave, does me no 
injury, but that he only makes use of his rights? Where are those 
rights ? Who hath stamped upon them so sacred a character as to 
silence mine ? 

He who supports the system of slavery, is the enemy of the whole 
human race. He divides it into two societies of legal assasins ; the 
oppressors, and the oppressed. It is the same thing as proclaiming 
to the world, if you would preserve your life, instantly take away 
mine, for I want to have yours. 

But the negroes, they say, are a race born for slavery ; their dispo- 
sitions are narrow, treacherous, and wicked ; they themselves allow 
the superiority of our understandings, and almost acknowledge the 
justice of our authority. Yes ; the minds of the negroes are contracted, 
because slavery destroys all the springs of the soul. They are wicked, 
but not equally so with you. They are treache;ous, because they are 
under no obligation to speak truth to their tyrants. They acknowl- 
edge the superiority of our understandings, because we have abused 
their ignorance. They allow the justice of our authority, because we 
have abused their weakness. 

I shall not be afraid to cite to tfie tribunal of reason and justice those 
governments, which tolerate this cruelty, or which even are not ashamed 
to make it the basis of their power. 

JAaUES PIERftE BRISSOT. 

When you run over ]Maryland and Virginia, you conceive yourself 
in a different world ; and you arc convinced of it, when you converse 
with the inhabitants. 

They speak not here of projects for freeing the negroes ; they praise 
not the societies of London and America ; they lead not the works of 
Clarkson — No ; the indolent masters behold with uneasiness the efforts 
that are making to render freedom universal. 

" God has created men of all nations, of all languages, of all colors, 
equally free ; Slavery, in all its forms, in all its degrees, is a violation of 
the Divine laws; and a degradation of human nature.'''' 

[Travels in the United States, 1788.] 

JONATHAN SWIFT. 

abi viator, 

et imitare, si p0teri3, 

strenuum pro virili libertatis vindicem. 

(go traveller, 

and imitate if tou can, 

a strenuous advocate of human liberty.) 

From the Epitaph of Dean Swift, 
Written by himself, and engraved on his monumenl in St. 
Patrick's CathedrcJ, Dublin. 



J. p. CURRAN H. GRATTAN MISS EDGEWORTH. 86 



JOHN PHILPOT CURRAN. 

"Universal Emancipation." — I speak in the spirit of the British 
Law, which makes hberty commensurate with, and inseparable from, 
the British soil — which proclaims, even to the stranger and the so- 
journer, the moment he sets his foot upon British earth, tliat the ground 
on which he treads is holy, and consecrated by the genius of Universal 
Emancipation. No matter in what language liis doom may have been 
pronounced ; no matter what complexion incompatible with freedom, 
an Indian or an African sun may have burnt upon him ; no matter in 
what disastrous battle his liberty may have been cloven down ; no 
matter with what solemnities he may have been devoted upon the 
altar of slavery ; the first moment he touches the sacred soil of Britain, 
the altar and the god sink together in the dust ; his soul walks abroad 
in her own majesty; his body swells beyond the measure of his 
chains, that burst from around him, and he stands redeemed, regene- 
rated, and disenthralled, by the irresistible Genius of Universal 
Emancipation. 

HENRY GRATTAN. 

Liberty— and is this subject a matter of indifference ? — Liberty, 
which, like the Deity, is an essential spirit best known by its conse- 
quences — liberty, which now animates you in your battles by sea and 
land, and lifts you up proudly superior to your enemies — liberty, that 
glorious spark and emanation of the Divinity, which fired your ances- 
tors, and taught them to feel like an Hampden, that it was not life, 
but the condition of living ! An Irishman sympathizes in these noble 
sentiments — wherever he goes — to whatever quarter of the earth he 
journeys — whatever wind blows his poor garments, let hira but have 
the pride, the glory, the ostentation of liberty ! 

MARIA EDGEWORTH. 

Are we disposed to pity the slave-merchant, who, urged by the 
maniacal desire for gold, hears, unmoved, the groans of his fellaw- 
creatures, the execrations of mankind, and that " small still voice," 
which haunts those who are stained with blood ? — Practical Education. 

Granting it to be physically impossible that the world should exist 
without rum and sugar and indigo, why could they not be produced 
by freemen as well as by slaves ? If we hired negroes for laborers, 
instead of purchasing them for slaves, do you think they would not 
work as well as now ? Does any negro, under the fear of the over- 
seer, work harder than a Birmingham journeyman, or a Newcastle 
collier ; who toil for themselves and their families ? 

The law, in our case, seems to make the right ; and tlie very re- 
verse ought to be done ; the right should make the law. 



86 THOMAS MOORE DANIEL O'CONNELL. 



THOMAS MOORE. 

Who can, with patience, for a moment see 
The medley mass of pride and misery. 
Of wliips and charters, manacles and rights, 
Of slaving blacks and democratic whites, 
And all the piebald policy that reigns 
In free confusion o'er Columbia's plains ? 
To think that man,— thou just and gentle God, 
Should stand before thee with a tyrant's rod, 
O'er creatures like himself, with souis from thee, 
Yet dare to boast of perfect liberty ! ! 

Away ! away 1 I'd rather hold my neck 
By doubtful tenure from a Sultan's beck, 
In climes where liberty has scarce been nam'd 
Nor any right, but that of ruling claini'd. 
Than thus to live, where boasted Freedom waves 
Her fustain flag in mockery over slaves ;— 
Where motley laws, (admitting no degree 
Betwixt the basely slav'd and madly free,) 
Alike the bondage and the license suit,— 
The brute made ruler, and the man made brute ! 

DANIEL O'COKNELL. 

The Americans, in their conduct towards the slaves, were traitors to 
the cause of human liberty, foul detractors of the democratic principle 
which he had cherished throughout his political life, and blasphemers 
of that great and sacred name which they pretended to recognise. 
For, in their solemn league and covenant, the Declaration of American 
Independence, they dec^lared that all men (he used their own words) 
have certain "inalienable rights," — these they defined to be, life, liberty, 
and the purswit of happiness. To maintain these, they pledged them- 
selves with all the solemnity of an oath, in the jnesence of Almighty 
God. The aid which they had invoked from heaven had been awarded 
to them, but they had violated their awfully solemn compact with the 
Deity, and set at nought every principle wliich they professed to hold 
sacred, by keeping two and a half millions of their fellow-men in 
bondage. In reprobation of that disgraceful conduct, his humble voice 
had been heard across the wide waves of the Atlantic. Like the 
thunder-storm in its strength, it had careered against the breeze, armed 
with the lightning of Christian truth. (Great cheering.) And let 
them seek to repress it as they may — let them murder and assassinate 
in the true spirit of Lynch law ; the storm would wax louder and 
louder around tliem, till the claims of justice became too strong to be 
v/ithstood, and the black man would stand up too big for his chains. 
It seemed, indeed — he hoped what he was about to say was not pro- 
fanation — as if the curse of the Almighty had already overtaken them. 
For the first time in their political history, disgraceful tumult and 
anarchy had been witnessed in their cities. Blood had been shed 
without the sanction of law, and even Sir Robert Peel had been enabled 
to taunt the Americans with gross inconsistency and lawless proceed- 



WILLIAM BEST. 87 

in^s. He differed from Sir Robert Peel on many points. On one 
point, however, he fully agreed with him. Let the proud A.mericans 
loam that all parties in this country unite in condemnation of their 
present conduct; and let them also learn that the worst of all aristoc- 
racies is that which prevails in America — an aristocracy which had 
been aptly denominated that of the human skin. The most insufferable 
pride was that shown by such an aristocracy. 

He would continue to hurl his taunts across the Atlantic. These 
would ascend the Mississippi, they would descend the Missouri, and 
be heard along the banks of the Ohio and the Monongahela, till the 
black man would leap delighted to express his gratitude to those who 
had effected his emancipation. (Cheers.) And, Oh — but perhaps it 
was his pride that dictated the hope — that some black O'Connell might 
rise among his fellow-slaves (tremendous cheers,) who would cry 
agitate, agitate, agitate (renewed cheering,) till the two millions and a 
half of his fellow-sufferers learned the secret of their strength — learned 
that they were two millions and a half. (Enthusiastic cheers.) If there 
was one thing which more than another could excite his hatred, it was 
the laws which the Americans had framed to prevent the instruction 
of their slaves. To teach a slave to read was made a capital offence. 
(Shame.) To be seen in company with a negro who could write was 
visited with imprisonment (shame,) and to teach a slave the principles 
of freedom, was punished with death. Were these human laws, it 
might be asked ? Were they not laws made by wolves of t)ie forest ? 
No, they were made by a congregation of two-legged wolves — Ameri- 
can wolves — monsters in human shape, who boast of their liberty and 
of their humanity, while they carry the hearts of tigers within them. 
(Cheers.) With regard to the attacks which had been made upon his 
countrymen by such men, he rejoiced at them. (Cheers.) These 
proved to him that the sufferings to which they had been subjected in 
the land of their birth, had not been lost upon them ; but that their 
kindly affections had been nurtured into strength, and that they had 
ranged themselves on the side of the oppessed slave. (Cheers.) — 
Speech in Glasgow, Scotland, Sept. 1836. 

WILLIAM BEST. 

It is a matter of pride for me to recollect, that while economists and 
politicians were recommending to the Legislature the protection of this 
traffic, and senators were framing laws for its promotion, and declaring 
it a benefit to the country, — the judges of the land, above the age m 
which they lived, standing upon the high ground of natural right, and 
disdaining to bend to the lower doctrine of expediency, declared that 
slavery was inconsistent with the genius of the English Constitution, 
and that human beings could not be the subject matter of property. 
As a lawyer, I speak of that early determination, when a different 
doctrine was prevailing in the senate, with a considerable degree of 
professional pride. 



GREAT BRITAIN. 
GREAT BRITAIN. 




Act o/3 and 4 William IV, chapter Ixxiii, § 12. 

Be it enacted, that all and every of the persons, who, on the first day 
of August, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-four, shall be holden 
in slavery within any such British colony as aforesaid, shall, upon, and 
from and after the first day of August, one thousand eight hundred and 
thirty-four, become and be to all intents and purposes, free and 
discharged of, and from all manner of slavery, and shall be absolutely 
and for ever manumitted ; and that the children thereafter to be bom 
to any such persons, and the offspring of such children, shall in like 
manner be free from their birth; and that from and after the first day 
of Jiugust, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-four, SLAVERY 
shall be, and is hereby utterly and for ever ABOLISHED and declared 
unlawfiU throughout the British colonies, plantations, and possessions 
abroad. 



BLACKSTONE SHARP THOMAS CLARKSON. 89 

WILLIAM BLACKSTONE. 

Those rights which God and nature have established, and are, 
therefore, called natural rights — such as life and liberty — need not the 
aid of human laws to be more effectually invested in every man than 
they are ; neither do they receive any additional strength when declared 
by the municipal laws to be inviolable. On the contrary, no human 
legislature has power to abridge or destroy them, unless the owner 
himself shall commit some act which amounts to a tbifeiture. 

The first and primary end of all human laws is, to maintain and 
regulate those absolute rights of individuals. The absolute rights of 
man, considered as a free agent, endowed with discernment to know 
good from evil, and with power of choosing those measures v/hich 
appear to him most desirable, arc usually summed up in one general 
appellation, and denommated the natural libert}' of mankind. This 
natural liberty consists, properly in a power of acting as one thinks fit, 
without any restraint or control, unless by the law of nature, being a 
right inherent in us by birth, and one of the gifts of God to man at his 
creation, when he endued him with the faculty of free will. But every 
man, when he enters into society, gives up a part of his natural liberty, 
as the price of so valuable a purchase ; and, in consideration of receiving 
the advantages of mutual commerce, obliges himself to comform to 
those laws which the community has thought proper to establish. 

These rights and liberties are no other than either that residuum 
of natural liberty which is not required by the laws of society to be 
sacrificed to public convenience ; or else those civil privileges which 
society hath engaged to provide in lieu of the natural liberties so given 
up by individuals. — These are, the right of personal security, the right 
of personal liberty, and the right of private property. — Commentaries. 

GRANVILLE SHARP. 

"If such laws are not absolutely necessary for the government of 
slaves, the law-makers must unavoidably allow themselves to be the 
most cruel and abandoned tyrants upon earth, and, perhaps that ever 
were on earth. But, on the other hand, if it be said tliat it is impos- 
sible to govern slaves, vdthout such inhuman severihj and detestable 
injustice, the same is an invincible argument against the least toleration 
of slavery among Christians; because temporal profits, cannot com- 
pensate the forfeiture of everlasting welfare — that the cries of these 
much injured people ivill certainly reach heaven — tliat the Scriptures 
denounce a tremendous judgment against the man who shv.U ofiend 
one little one — that it were better for the nation that their American 
dominions had never existed, or even that they had sunk in the sea, than 
that the kingdom of Great Britain should be loaded with the horrid ^uilt 
of tolerating such abominable wickedness,'''' &c. — Journal, Feb. ISth, 1772. 

THOMAS CLARKSON. 

I passed through no town in which some individual had not left olT 
the use of sugar. In the smaller towns there were from ten to fifty by 
estimation, and in the larger, from two to fivr; hundred, who had made 

8-* 



90 WILLIAM WORDSWORTH WILBERFORCE. 

this sacrifice to virtue. These were of all ranks and parties. Rich 
and poor, churchmen and dissenters, had adopted the measure. Even 
grocers had left oft" trading in the article in som*; places. In gentlemen's 
families, where the master had set the example, the servants ha?l often 
voluntarily followed it; even children, capable of understanding the 
African's sufferings, excluded, with the most virtuous resolution, the 
accustomed sweets from their lips. By the least computation I could 
make, from notes taken down in my journey, no fewer than three 
hundred thousand (300,000) persons had abandoned the use of sugar. 

This account of the manner in wliitli linht and information proceed in 
a free country, furnishes us with some valuable knowledge. It shov.'s 
us, first, the great importance of education ; for all tliey who can read 
may become enlightened. They may gain as much from the dead as 
from the living. They may see the sentiments of former ages. Thus 
they may contract, by degress, habits of virtuous inclination, and 
become fitted to join with others in the removal of any of the evils of life. 

It shows us, secondly, how that encouraging maxim may become 
true. That no good effort is ever lost. For if he, who makes the 
virtuous attempr, should be prevented by death from suceeding in it, 
can he not speak through the tomb ? ^Vill not his works still breathe 
his sentiments upon it? May not the opinions, and the facts, which 
he has recorded meet the approbation of ten thousand readers of whom 
it is propable, in the common course of things, that some will branch 
out of him as authors, and others as actors or laborers, in the same 
cause?* 

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. 

TO THOMAS CLARKSON. 

Gn the final passing of the Bill for the abolition of the Slave-trade, March, 1807. 

Clarkson ! it was an obstinate hill to climb: 
How toilsome— nay, how dire it was, by thee 
Is known, by none perhaps, so feelingly ; 
But, thou, who starting in thy fervent prime 
Did'st first lead forth this pilgrimage sublime, 
Hast heard its constant voice its charge repeat, 
Which out of thy young heart's oracular seat, 
First roused thee. — O true yoke-fellow of time 
With ur.abating eflTort, see, tiie palm 
Is won, and by all nations shall be worn ! 
The bloody writing is for ever torn, 
And thou lienceforth shalt have a good man's calm, 
A great man's happiness ; thy zeal shall find 
Repose at length firm friend of human kind ! 

WILLIAM WILBERFORCE. 

It was ridiculous to say that men would be boimd by their interest, 
when gain or ardent passion uiged them. It might as well be asserted 

* " Resolved, That the Speaker be requested to acknowledge the receipt and 
Acceptance of Clarkson's History of Slavery, presented by the American Con- 
vention for promotins; the abolition of slavery, and improving the coi.uiiion of 
the Africans, and tbat the said work be deposited in the library "—ifouffc of 
Represfutativcs. Ftb. 13, l&OO. 



WILLIAM PITT EDMUND BURKE. 91 

that a stone could not be thrown into the air, or a body move from 
place to place, because the principles of gravitation bound them to the 
surface of the earth. If a planter Ibund himself reduced in his profits, 
he did not usually dispose of any part of his slaves ; and his own 
gratifications Mere never given up, so long as there was a possibility 
of making any retrenchment in the allowance of his slaves. 

It was the gracious ordinance of Providence, both in the natiual and 
moral world, that good ^-hould often arise out of evil. Hurricanes 
cleared the air ; and the propagation of truth was promoted by perse- 
cution. Pride, vanity, and profusion contributed often, in their re- 
moter consequences, to the happiness of mankind. In common, what 
was itself evil and vicious was permitted to carry along with it some 
circumstances of palliation. The Arab was hospitable ; the robber 
brave. We did not necessarily find cruelty associated with fraud, or 
meanness with injustice. But here the case was far otherwise. It 
was the prerogative of this detestable traffic to separate from evil its 
concomitant good, and to reconcile discordant misciiiefs. It robbed 
war of its generosity ; it deprived peace of its security ; we saw in it 
the vices of polished society, without its knowledge or its comforts ; 
and the evils of barbarism without its simplicity. No age, no sex, no 
rank, no condition, was exempt from the fatal influence of this wide- 
wasting calamity. Thus it attained to the fullest measure of pure, un- 
mixed, unsophisticated wickedness ; and, scorning all competition and 
comparison, it stood without a rival in the secure, undisputed posses- 
sion of its detestable pre-eminence. 

WILLIAM PITT. 

Mr. Pitt rose, and said, that from the first hour of his having had the 
honor to sit in parliament down to the present, aniong all the questions, 
whether political or personal, in which it had been his fortune to take 
a share, there never had been one in which his heart was so deeply in- 
terested as in the present ; both on account of the serious principles 
involved, and the consequences connected with it. 

The present was not a mere question of feeling. The argument, 
wliich ought in his opinion to determine the committee, was, that the 
slave-trade was unjust. It was, therefore, such a trade as it was im- 
possible for him to support, unless it could be first proved to him, that 
there were no laws of morality binding upon nations ; and that it was 
not the duty of a legislature to restrain its subjects from invading the 
happiness of other countries, and from violating the fundamental prin- 
ciples of justice. 

EDMUND BURKE. 

Nothing makes a slave but a degraded man. In proportion as the 
mind grows callous to its degradation, and all sense of manly pride is 
lost, the slave feels comfort. In fact, he is no longer a man. If he 
were to define a man, he would say with Shakspeare, 

" Man is a being, holding large discourse, 
Looking before and after." 

But a slave was incapable of looking before and after. He had no 



92 JOHx\ COURTENAY CHARLES JAMES FOX. 

motive to do it. He was a mere passive instrument in the hands of 
others, to be used at their discretion. Though living, he was dead as 
to all voluntary agency. Though moving amidst the creation with an 
erect form, and with the shape and semBlance of a human being, he 
was a nullity as a man. 

He said the slave-trade was directly contrary to the princip' s of 
humanity and justice, and that the state of slavery which follow od it, 
however mitigated, was a state so improper, so degrading, and so 
ruinous to the feelings and capacities of human nature, that it ought 
not to be suffered to exist. 

JOHN COURTENAY. 

The trade, it had been said, was conducted upon the principles of 
humanity. Yes : we rescued the Africans from what we were pleased 
to call their wretched situation in their own country, and then we took 
credit for our humanity ; because, after having killed one half of them 
in the seasoning, we substituted what we were pleased to call a better 
treatment than that which they would have experienced ut hoine. 

It had been said by Mr. Stanley, that the pulpit had been used as 
an instrument of attack on the slave-trade. He was happy to learn it 
had been so well employed ; and he hoped the bishops would rise up 
in the house of lords, with the virtuous indignation which became 
them, to abolish a traffic so contrary to humanity, justice, and religion. 

CHARLES JAMES FOX. 

Some had considered this question as a question of political, whereas 
it was a question of personal freedom. Political freedom was un- 
doubtedly a great blessing ; but, when it came to be compared with 
personal, it sunk to nothing. To confound the two served therefore 
to render all arguments on either perplexing and unintelligible. Per- 
sonal freedom was the first right of every human being. It was a right, 
of which he who deprived a fellow creature was absolutely criminal in 
so depriving him, and which he who withheld was no less criminal in 
withholding. He would say that if the house, knowing what the trade 
was by the evidence, did not by their vote mark to all mankind their 
abhorrence of a practice so savage, so enormous, so repugnant to all 
laws, human and divine, they would consign their characters to eter- 
nal infamy. 

But what was our motive in the case before us ? To continue a 
vTa.de which was a wholesale sacrifice of a whole order and race of our 
fellow creatures ; which carried them away by force from their native 
country, in order to subject them to the mere will and caprice, the 
tyranny and oppression, of other human beings, for their whole natural 
lives, them and their posterity for ever ! ! O most monstrous wicked- 
ness ! O unparalleled barbarity ! 

Let them remember that humanity did not consist in a squeamish 
ear. It did not consist in shrinking and starting at such tales as these ; 
but in a diposilion of the heart to remedy the evils they unfolded. 
Humanity belonged rather to the mind than to the nerves. But, if so, 
it should prompt men to charitable exertion. 



PHILIP FRANCIS MR. HUDDLESTONE. 93 

Let them make the case their own. This was the Christian rule of 
judging ; and, having mentioned Christiajiity, he was sorry to find 
that any should suppose that it had given countenance to such a system 
of oppression. So tar was this from being the case, that he thought it 
one of the most splendid triumphs of this religion, that it had caused 
slavery to be so generally abolished on its appearance in the world. It 
had done this by teaching us, among other beautiful precepts, that, in 
the sight of their Maker, all mankind were equal. He knew, how- 
ever, that what he had been ascribing to Christianity had been im- 
puted by others to the advances which philosophy had made. Each 
of the two parties took the merit to itself. The philosopher gave it to 
philosophy, and the divine to religion. He should not then dispute 
with either of them ; but as both coveted the praise, why should they 
not emulate each other by promoting this improvement in the condition 
of the human race ? 

PHILIP FRANCIS. 

Having himself an interest in the West Indies, he thought that what 
he should submit to the house would have the double effect of evidence 
and argument ; and he stated m^st unequivocally his opinion, that the 
abolition of the slave-trade would tend materially to the benefit of the 
West Indies. — Many had affirmed that the slave-trade was politic and 
expedient; but it was worthy of remark, that no man had ventured to 
deny that it was criminal. Criminal, however, he declared it to be in 
the highest degree ; and he believed it was equally impolitic. Both its 
inexpediency and injustice had been established by the honorable 
mover. 

He instanced an overseer, who, having thrown a negro into a cop- 
per of boiling cane-juice for a trifling offence, was punished merely by 
the loss of his place, and by bemg obliged to pay the value of his slave. 
He stated another instance of a girl of fourteen, who was dreadfully 
whipped for coming too late to her work. She fell down motionless 
after it ; and was then dragged along the ground, by the legs, to an 
hospital ; where she died. This was a notorious fact. It was pub- 
lished in the Jamaica Gazette : and it has even happened since the 
question of the abolition had been started. 

Tiie only argument used against such cruelties was the master's 
interest in the slave. But he urged the comnjon cruelty to horses, in 
which the drivers had an equal interest with the drivers of men in the 
colonies, as a proof that this was no security. He had never heard an 
instance of a master being punished for the murder of his slave. 

MR. HUDDLESTONE. 
He said that a curse attended this trade even in tlie mode of defend- 
ing it. By a certain fatality, none but the vilest arguments were brought 
forward, which corrupted the very persons, who used them. Every 
one of these were built on the narrow ground of interest; of pecuniary 
profit; of sordid gain; in opposition to every higher consideration; 
to every motive that had reference to humanity, justice, and religion ; 
or to that great principle, which comprehended them all. Place only 



94 SAMUEL WHITBREAD THOMAS ERSKINE. 

before the most determined advocate of this odious traffic, the exact 
image of himself in the garb and harness of a slave, dragged and 
whipped about like a beast ; place this image also before him, and 
paint it as that of one without a ray of hope to cheer him ; and you 
would extort from him the reluctant confession, that he would not 
endure for an hour the misery, to which he condemned his fellow- 
man for life. 

SAMUEL WHITBREAD. 

No eloquence could persuade him, that the Africans were torn from 
their country and their dearest connexions, merely that they might lead 
a happier life ; or that they could be placed under the uncontrolled 
dominion of others without suffering. Arbitrary power would spoil 
the hearts of the best. Hence would arise tyranny on the one side, 
and a sense of injury on the other. Hence the passions would be let 
loose, and a state of perpetual enmity would follow. 

He needed only to go to the accounts of those who defended the sys- 
tem of slavery, to show that it was cruel. He was forcibly struck last 
year by an expression of an honorable member, an advocate for the 
trade, who, when he came to speak of the slaves, on selling off the stock 
of a plantation, said, that they fetched less than the common price, 
because they were damaged ! Damaged ! "What ! were they goods 
and chattels? What an idea w^as this to hold out to out fellow 
creatures ! 

THOMAS ERSKINE. 

The Lord Chancellor (Erskine) said, " From information which he 
could not dispute, he was warranted in saying, that on this continent 
[Africa] husbands were fraudulently and forcibly severed from their 
wives, and parents from their children ; and that all the ties of blood 
and affection were torn up by the roots. He had himself seen the un- 
happy natives put together in heaps in the hold of a ship, where, with 
every possible attention to them, their situation must have been intole- 
rable. He had also heard proved in courts of justice, facts still more 
dreadful than those which he had seen. One of these he would just 
mention. The slaves on board a certain ship rose in a mass to hberate 
themselves ; and having far advanced in the pursuit of their object, it 
became necessary to repel them by force. Some of them yielded ; 
some of them were killed in the scuffle ; but many of them actually 
jumped into the sea and were drowned ; thus preferring death to the 
misery of their situation ; while others hung to the ship, repenting of 
their lashness, and bewailing with frightful noises their horrid fate. 
Thus the whole vessel exhibited but one hideous scene of wretched- 
ness. They, who were subdued, and secured in chains, were seized 
with the flux, which carried many of them off". These things were 
proved in a trial before a British jury, which had to consider, whether 
this was a loss, which fell within the policy of insurance, the slaves 
being regarded as if they had been only a cargo of dead matter. He 
could mention other instances, but they were much too shocking to be 
described. Surely their lordships could never consider such a traffic 
to be consistent with humanity or justice." 



GRENVILLE SHAKSPEARE JOHNSON. 96 

GEORGE GRENVILLE. 

Lord Gremalle then read a resolution of the Commons. " This 
resolution, he said, stated first, that the slave-trade was contrary to 
humanity, justice, and sound pohcy. That it was contrary to humani- 
ty was obvious ; for humanity might be said to be sympathy for the 
distress of others, or a desire to accomphsh benevolent ends by good 
means. But did not the slat'C-trade convey ideas the very reverse of 
the definition ? It deprived men of all those comforts, in which it 
pleased the Creator to make the happiness of his creature to consist, of 
the blesstncrs of society, of the chanties of the dear relationships of 
husband, wife, father, son, and kindred ; of the due discharge of the 
relative duties of these, and of that freedom, which in its pure and 
natural sense, was one of the greatest gifts of God to man. 

" It was impossible to read the evidence, as it related to this trade, 
without acknowledging the inhumanity of it and our own disgrace. 

"In a state of nature, man had a right to the fruit of his own labour 
absolutely to himself; and one of the main purposes, for which he en- 
tered into society, was, that he might be better protected in the posses- 
sion of his rights. In both cases, therefore, it was manifestly unjust, 
that a man should be made to labor during the whole of his life, and 
yet have no benefit from his labor. Hence the slave-trade and the 
colonial slavery were a violation of the very principle, upon which all 
law for the protection of property was founded. Whatever benefit 
was derived from that trade to an individual, it was derived from dis- 
honor and dishonesty. He forced from the unhappy victim of it that, 
which the latter did not wish to give him ; and he gave to the same 
victim that, which he in vain attempted to show, was an equivalent to 
the thing he took, it being a thing for which there was no equivalent, 
and which, if he had not obtained by force, he would not have possess- 
ed at all. The injustice complained of was not confined to the bare 
circumstance of robbing them of the right to their own labor. It was 
conspicuous throughout the system," 

WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE. 

Shylock. What judgment shall I dread, doing no wrong? 
You have among you many a purchased slave.* 
Which like your asses, and your dogs, and mules, 
You use in abject and in slavish parts, 
Because you bought them :— shall I say to you, 
Let them be free, marry them to your heirs? 
Why sweat thev under burthens ? let their beds 
Be made as soft as yours, and let their palates 
Be season'd with such viands ? you will answer, 
The slaves are ours : — so do I answer you : 
The pound of flesh, which I demand of him, 
Is dearly bought, is mine, and I will have it ; 
If you deny me, fie upon your law I 

SAMUEL JOHNSON. 

* This argument, considered as used to the particular persons, seems con- 
clusive. I see not how Venetians or Englishmen, while they practice the pur- 
chase and sale of slaves, can much enforce or demand the law of doing t» 
others as we would they should do to us. 



96 MILTON POPE ADDISON BURNS SMOLLETT. 



JOHN MILTON. 

O execrable son, so to aspire 
Above his brethren, he himself assuming 
Autliority usurped from God, not given. 

— Man over men 
He made not lord ; such title to Himself 
Reserving, human left from human free. 

In all things that have beauty, there is nothing to man more comely than liberty. 
Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely, above all liberties 

ALEXANDER POPE. 

Some safer world in depths of wood embraced, 
Some happier island in the watery waste ; 
Where slaves once more their native land behold, 
No fiends torment, no Christians tliirst for gold. 

Essay on Man. 

God fixed it certain, that, whatever day 
Makes man a slave takes half his worth away. 

Homer's Odyssey. 

JOSEPH ADDISON. 

O Liberty, thou goddess heavenly bright, 
Profuse of bliss, and pregnant with delight ! 
Eternal pleasures in thy presence reign, 
And smiling plenty leads thy wanton train : 
Eas'd of her load, subjection grows more light, 
And poverty looks cheerful in thy sight ; 
Thou mak'st the gloomy face of nature gay, 
Giv'st beauty to the sun, and pleasure to the day. 

ROBERT BURNS. 

I'm designed yon lordhng's slave, 

By Nature's law design'd, 
Why was an independent wish 

Ere planted in my mind ? 
If not, why am I subject to 

His cruelty or scorn ? 
Or why has man the will and power 

To make his fellow mourn ? 

Then let us pray that come it may. 

As come it shall for a' that. 
That sense and worth o'er all the earth 

Shall bear the grec, an' a' that. 
For a' that, an' a' that. 

It's coming yet, for a' that ; 
When man to man, the warld all o'er, 
Shall brothers be, an' a' that. 

TOBIAS SMOLLETT. 

Thy spirit, Independence ! let me share, 

Lord of the Lion-heart and Eagle-eye ; — 
Thy steps I'll follow with my bosom bare, 

Nor heed the storm that howls along thB sTcy. 



THOMAS DAY S. J. PRATT WILLIAM COWPER. 97 



THOMAS DAY. 

And better in the untimely grave to rot, 
The world and all its cruelties forgot, 
Thaa dragged once more beyond the western main, 
To groan beneath some dastard planter's chain, 
Where my poor countrymen in bondage wait 
The slow enlranchisement of ling'nng fate. 
J"h I my heart smks, my dying eyes o'er flow, 
When memory paints the picture of their woe I 
For I have seen them, ere the dawn of da)-, 
Rous'd by the lash begin their cheerless way : 
Greeting with groans, unwelcome morn's return, 
While rage and shame their gloomy bosoms bum ; 
And chiding every hour the slow-pac'd sun. 
Endure their toils till all his race was run ; 
No eye to maik their sufferings with a tear, 
No friend to comfort, and no hope to cheer ; 
Then, like the dull unpitied brutes, repair 
To stalls as wretched, and as coarse a fare ; 
Thank heaven, one day of misery was o'er. 
And sink to sleep cind wish to wake no more. 

The Dying Negro. 

S. J. PRATT. 

Tyrants o'er brutes with ease extend their plan, 
Then rise in cruelty from beast to man ; 
Their sordid policy each crime allows, 
The flesh that quivers, and the blood that flows, 
The fuiious stripes that murder in a day, 
Or tort'ring arts that kill by dire delay ; 
The fainting spirit and the bursting vein. 
All, all, are reconciled to Christian gain. 

The Rights of Nature. 

WILLIAM COWPER. 

Man finds his fellow guilty of a skin 

Not colored like his own ; and having pow'r 

T' eriforce the wrong, for such a worthy cause 

Dooms and devotes him as his lawful prey. 

Thus man devotes his brother, and destroys ; 

And worse than all, and most to be deplor'd, 

As human nature's broadest, foulest blot. 

Chains him, and tasks him, and exacts his sweat 

With stripes th-at mercy with a bleeding heart 

Weeps w hen she sees inflicted on a beast. 

Then what is man ? And what man, seeing this, 

And having human feelings, does not blush 

And hang his head, to think himself a man 1 

I would not have a slave to till my ground, 

To carry me, to fan me while I sleep. 

And tremble when I wake, lor all the wealth 

That sinews bought and sold have ever earn'd. 

No ! dear as freedom is, and in my heart's 

Just estimation priz'd above all price, 

I had much rather be myself the slave. 

And wear the bonds, than fasten them on him. 

The tender ties of parent, husband, friend, 
All bonds of Nature, in thai moment end. 



98 ROSCOE HANNAH MORE MONTGOMERr. 

O most degrading of all ills that wait 
On man, (a mourner in his best estate !) 
AJl other sorrows virtue may endure. 
And find submission more than half a cure ; 
But Slavery ! I Virtue dreads it as her grave 
Patience itself is meanness in a slave. 
Wait, then, the dawning of a brighter day. 
And snap the chain the moment when you may 
Nature imprints upon wliate'er we see 
That has a heart and life in it, " Be Free," 

WILL[AM ROSCOE. 

Form'd with tlie same capacity of pain, 
The same desire of pleasure and of ease, 
Why feels not man for man I When nature shrink* 
From the slight puncture of an insect's sting. 
Faints, if not screen'd from sultry suns, and pines 
Beneath the hardship of an hour's delay 
Of needful nutriment ; — when Liberty 
Is prized so dearly, that the slightest breath 
That ruffles but her mantle, can awake 
To arms unwarlike nations, and can rouse 
Confed'rate states to vindicate her claims : — 
How shall the suff'rer man his fellow doom 
To ills he mourns or spurns at ; tear with stripes 
His quiv'ring flesh ; with hunger and with thirst 
Waste his emaciate frame ; in ceaseless toils 
Exhaust his vital powers ; and bind liis limbs 
In galling chains ! 

HANNAH MORE. 

See the dire victim torn from social life, 

The shrieking babe, the agonizing wife ! 

She I wretch forlorn, is dragg'd by hostile hands 

To distant tyrants, sold to distant lands. 

Transmitted miseries and successive chains, 

The sole sad heritage her child obtains ! 

E'en this last wretched boon their foes deny, 

To live together, or together die. 

By felon hands, by one relentless stroke. 

See the fond links of feeling nature broke I 

The fibres twisting round a parent's heart, 

Torn from their grasp, and bleeding as they part. 

JAMES MONTGOMERY. 

Lives there a reptile baser than a slave ? 
Loathsome as death, corrupted as the grave. 
See the dull creole, at his pompous board, _ 
Attendant vassals cringing round their lord ; 
Satiate with food, his heavy eyelids close, 
Voluptuous minions fan him to repose ; 
Prone on the noonday couch he lolls in vain. 
Delirious slumbers rack his maudlin brain ; 
He starts with hoiTor from bewildering dreams 
His bloodshot eye with fire and frenzy gleams, 
He stalks abroad ; through all his wonted rouncis, 
The negro trembles, and the lash resounds. 
And cries of anguish shrilling through the air, 
To distant fields his dread approach declare 



SOUTHEY CAMPBELL DARWIN STEWART. 99 



ROBERT SOUTHEY. 
Oh, he is worn with toil ! the big drops run 
Down his daj-k cheek I hold — hold thy merciless hand, 
Pale tyrant ! for beneath thy hard command 
O'er wearied nature sinks. The scorching sun, 
As pitiless as proud Prosperity 
Darts on him his full beams ; gasping as he lies, 
Arraigning with his looks the patient skies, 
While that inhuman trader lifts on high 
The niangling scourge. O ! ye who at your ease 
Sip the blood-sweetened beverage, thoughts like these 
Haply ye scorn. I thank thee gracious God! 
That I do feel upon my cheek the glow 
Of indignation, when beneath the rod, 
A sable brother writhes in silent woe. 

THOMAS CAMPBELL. 

And say supernal Powers ; who deeply scan 

Heav'n's dark decree, unfathom'd yet by man. 

When shall the world call down to cleanse her shame. 

That embryo spirit, yet without a name. 

That friend of Natuie, whose avenging hands 

Shall burst the Lybian's adamantine bands ? 

Who, sternly marking on his native soil, 

The blood, the tears, the anguish, and the toil, 

Shall bid each righteous heart exult, to see 

Peace to the slave, and vengeance on the free ! 

Yet, yet, degraded man 1 th' e.xpected day 
That breaks your bitter cup, is far away ; 
Trade, wealth, and fashion, ask you still to bleed, 
And holy men give scripture for the deed ; 
Scourg'd and debas'd, no Briton stoops to save 
A wretch, a coward ; yes, because a slave ! 

ERASMUS DARWIN. 

Wrench'd the red scourge from proud Oppression's hands. 
And broke, curst Slavery I thy iron bands. 

E'en nov,-, e'en now, on yonder western shores 
Weeps pale Despair, and writhing Anguish roars ; 
E'en now in Afric's groves w^ith hideous yell 
Fierce Slavery stalks and slips the dogs of hell ; 
From vale to vale the gathering cries rebound 
And sable nations tremble at the sound. — 
— Who right the injured, and reward the brave. 
Stretch your strong arm, for ye have power to save '. 
Throned in the vaulted heart, his dread resort ; 
Ine.vorable Conscience holds his court ; 
With still small voice the plots of guilt alarms, 
Bares his masked brow, his lifted hand disarms ; 
But, vvrapp'd in night with terrors all his own, 
He speaks in thunders when the deed is done. 
Hear him, ye Senates ! hear this truth sublime, 
He who allows oppression shares the crime. 

" Botanic Garden.** 

JOHN STEWART. 
It is from the fatal preponderance of passion over reason, that tlic 
atrocious and damnable Tr.\de in Hum.\n Flesh is sanctified; an 
act so infamous, that could all the crimes which history records be 



100 SIR WILLIAM JONES E. L. BULWER. 

collected and consolidated into one, it would lose its nature of atrocity 
and become a virtue, when placed in comparison with the slave-trade, 
considered in its double flagitiousness of first buying the human species 
and then destroying them. It is inconceivable, that an assembly of a 
nation can be guilty of an act, that no individual who has not degraded 
himself below his species, and familiarized his ear to the association of 
his name with that of villain and scoundrel but would feel a horror of 
committing. Though legislative accomplices may cover his shame, 
and screen him from public censure, yet how, in the name of truth, if 
he possesses a well-organized mind and body, and but a common 
share of reflection, (or rather the pre-eminent and characteristic share 
of an Englishman,) how can he esteem himself, when conscience will 
ever upbraid him with the participation in an act whose flagitiousness is 
so great, that unless he renounces the character of man, his very share 
would be sufficient to sink him into the most ignominious contempt, 
and draw upon him more remorse than would the catalogue of all the 
acted and imagined crimes in nature. — The Moral Slate qjfj^ntions. 

SIR WILLIAM JONES. 

I pass with haste by the coast of Africa, whence my mind turns 
with indignation at the abominable traffic in the human species, from 
which a part of our countrymen dare to derive their inauspicious wealth. 
Siigar, it has been said, would be dear if it were not worked by blacks ; 
a^ if the most laborious, the most dangerous works were not carried 
o.) ill every country by freemen ; in fact, they are so carried on with 
iii;l;iitely more advantage, for there is alacrity in a consciousness of 
freedom, and a gloomy, sullen indolence in a consciousness of slavery. 
But let sugar be as dear as it may, it is better to eat none, to eat honey, 
if sweetness only be palatable ; better to eat aloes or col«quintida, than 
violate a primary law of nature, impressed on every heart not imbruted 
by avarice ; than rob one human creature of those eternal rights of 
which no law upon earth can justly deprive him. 

EDWARD LYTTON BULWER. 

It is in vain that they oppose OPINION ; any thing else they may 
subdue. They may conquer wind, water, nature itself; but to the 
progress of that secret, subtile, pervading spirit, their imagination can 
devise, their strength can accomplish, no bar; its votanes they may 
seize, they may destroy ; itself, they cannot touch. If they check it in 
one place, it invades them in another. They cannot build a wall 
across the whole earth ; and even if they could, it would pass over its 
summit ! Chains cannot bind it, for it is immaterial — nor dungeons 
enclose it, for it is universal. Over the faggot and the scaffold — over 
the bending bodies which th*y pile against its path, it sweeps on with 
a noiseless, but unceasing march. Do they bring armies against it, it 
presents to them no palpable object to oppose. Its camp is the 
universe ; its asylum the bosoms of their own soldiers. Let them 
depopulate, destroy as they please, to each extremity of the earth ; but 
as long as they have a single supporter themselves — as long as they 



HENRY BROUGHAM. 101 

leave a single individual into whom that spirit can enter, so long thoy 
will have the same labors to encouiiter, and the same enemy to subdue. 
The Spanish Patriot Riego^s Refiection^s on Tyrants. 



Oh, Freedom ! with prophet's voice, 
Bid the ends of the earth rejoice ! 
Wherever tlie proud are strong, 
And right is oppressed by wrong — 
Wherever the dim day shines, 
Through the cell where the captive pines. — 
Go forth with a trumpet's sound I 
And tell to the nations round — 
On the hills where the heroes trod, — 
In the shrines of the saints of God, — 
In the ruler's hall and the martyr's prison, 
That tlie slumber is broke and the sleeper arisen! 
That tlie day of the scourge and the fetter is o'er, 
And earth feels the tread of the freeman once more! 

HENRY BROUGHAM. 

Tell me not of rights — talk not of the property of the planter in 
his slaves. 1 deny the right — I acknowledge not the property. The 
principles, the feehngs, of our common nature, rise in rebellion against 
it. Be the appeal made to the unJcrstanding or to the heart, the sen- 
tence is the same that rejects it. In vain you tell me of laws that 
sanction such a claim ! There is a law above all the enactments of 
human codes — the same throughout the world, the same in all tiines — 
such as it was before the daring genius of Columbus pierced the nio-ht 
of ages, and opened to one world the sources of power, v/ealth, and 
knowledge; to another, all unutterable woes ; such it is at this day: 
it is the law written by the finger of God on the heart of man ; and by 
that law, unchangeable and eternal, while men despise fraud, and 
loathe rapine, and abhor blood, they shall reject with indignation the 
wild and guilty fantasy, that man can hold property in man! In vain 
you appeal to treaties, to covenants between nations. The covenants 
of the Almighty, whether the old or the new, denounce such unholy 
pretensions. To those laws did they of old refer, who maintained the 
African trade. Such treaties did the\' cite, and not untruly; for by 
one shameful compact, you bartered the glories of Blenheim for the 
traffic in blood! Yet, in despite of law and of treaties, that infernal 
traffic is now destroyed, and its votaries put to death like other pirates. 
How came this change to pass ? Not assuredly by parliament leading 
the way; but the country at length awoke; the indignation of the 
people was kindled ; it descended in thunder, and smote the traffic, 
and scattered its guilty profits to the winds 

One word before I sit down, and that shall be in reference to those 
other countries which, by a singular coincidence, obtained their freedom 
about the same period wiien we be^an our efl(:ctive strugijle — the Ameri- 
cans having obtained their political freedom about the time when Thomas 
Clarkson began to agitate the question of the slave-trade, and the 
French having obtained their restoration to freedom in the very same 
month when Yorkshire enabled us, by the spirit which it then exhibited, 

9"* 



102 THOMAS FOWELL BUXTON. 

to accomplish the great object of emancipation, for which we had 
previously so long struggled in vain. That being the case, is it not 
melancholy as it regards France — is it not unspeakably mournful — 
nay, is it not absolutely monstrous (I use the term without meaning 
offence,) as regards America — is it not matter of the profoundest won- 
der, that in a country which boasts of being the freest (and, politically 
speaking, it is one of the freest on the face of the earth,) should be the 
country which seems to cling the most closely to the slavery of the 
negroes, a slavery which when compared with the fetters which they 
(the Americans) so nobly burst asunder, in their resistance to the 
oppressions of the mother country, may be compared to straws laid 
upon the back of a camel ? (Cheers.) Can this endure — can such 
an anomaly be perpetuated — can so gross, so violent, so egregious 
an inconsistency continue among 13,000,000 of enlightened men ? I 
pronounce it impossible. (Hear, hear.) I have always stood forward 
as the fast friend of America. 1 have no doubt that the advice I now 
give her in the spirit of candor and friendship, will be received by her 
m the spirit in which it is offered. 

THOMAS FOWELL BUXTON. 

Mr. T. F. Buxton, in bringing forward his promised motion on the 
subject of the slave-trade, observed, that no person who had not wit- 
nessed the atrocities of that abominable traffic, could have an adequate 
conception of the crimes, miseries, and cruelties to which it gave rise. 
He requested the attention of the house to facts which he should lay 
before them from parliamentary documents — facts that indicated the 
extent to which the slave-trade was now carried on. 

In three years and a half, 150,537 slaves were introduced into Brazil 
through the single port of Rio de Janerio. But this did not include the 
whole number departed from Africa ; it only extended to the number 
introduced alive : we know nothing of the amount of mortality that 
occurred among the slaves on their passage. In 1830 the slave-trade 
had been legally abolished, notwithstanding which, however, he was 
Borry to say it now proceeded with almost as much activity as ever. 
This he gathered from the report of the Minister of Marine to the 
Legislative Assembly, which was as follows: — "Rio de Janeiro, June 
17, 1S33. — Well known are the tricks resorted to by speculators, as 
sordid as they are criminal, to continue the disgraceful traffic in slaves, 
in spite of all the legislative provisions and orders issued respecting it, 
which have been most scandalously eluded. It, therefore, appears 
necessary to the government to have recourse to the most efficacious 
means, which are, to arm a sufficient number of small vessels to form 
a sort of cordon sanitaire, whicii may prevent tiie access to our shores 
of those swarms of Africans that are continually poured forth from 
ships employed in so abominable a traffic." 

Before concluding, he would mention one fact, which had made a 
greater impression on his mind than almost any thing else. In addition 
to the desolation which this shameful traffic created in Africa, it was 
tho cHiuse of the destruction of not less than 100,000 persons, year by 



ELIZABETH HEYRICK HARRIET 3IARTiNEAU. 103 

year, and this large number of human btiiigs were sacrificed for the 
purpose of enriching miscreants, the acknowledged enemies of the 
human race, who, if justice had been done, would undoubtedly have 
died the death of murderers and pirates, (Hear, hear.) — Speech m the 
British House of Commons, May, 12, 1835. 



ELIZABETH HEYRICK. 

An immediate emancipation is the object to be aimed at : it is more 
wise and rational — more politic and safe, as well as more just and 
humane, than gradual emancipation. The interests, moral and political, 
temporal and eternal, of all parties concerned, will be best promoted 
by immediate emancipation. The sooner the planter is obliged to 
abandon a system which torments him with perpetual alarms of insur- 
rection and massacre — which keeps him in the most debasing moral 
bondage — subjects him to a tyranny, of all others the most injurious 
and destructive, tliat of sordid and vindictive passions ; the sooner he 
is obliged to adopt a more humane and more lucrative policy in the 
cultivation of his plantations ; the sooner the over-labored, crouching 
slave is converted into a free laborer — his compulsory, unremunerated 
toil, under the impulse of the cart-whip, exchanged "for cheerful, well 
recompensed industry, — his bitter sufferings for peaceful enjoyment — 
his deep execration of his merciless tyrants, for respectful attachment 
to his humane and equitable masters ; the sooner the government and 
the people of this country purify themselves from the guilt of supporting 
or tolerating a system of such ntonstrous injustice, productive of such 
complicated enormities — the sooner all this mass of impolicy, crime, 
and suffering, is got rid of, the better. 



HARRIET MARTINEAU. 

I believe that I have heard every argument that can possibly be 
adduced in vindication or paUiation of slavery, xmder any circumstances 
now existing ; and I declare that of all displays of intellectual perversion 
and weakness, that I have witnessed, I have met with none so hum- 
bling and so melancholy as the advocacy of this institution. I declare 
that I know the whole of its theory ; — a declaration that I dare not 
make with regard to, 1 think, any other subject whatever: the result 
is that I believe there is nothing rational to be said in vindication or 
palliation of the protraction of slavery in the United States. 

Alabama, JNJississippi, and Louisiana, present the extreme case of 
the fertility of the soil, the prosperity of proprietors and the woes of 
slaves. Tfound that the Virginians spoke with sorrow and contempt 
of the treatment of slaves in North and Soutli Carolina ; South Carohna 
and Georgia, of the treatment of slaves in the richer states to the west: 
and in these last, I found the case too bad to admit of aggravation. It 
was in these last that the most heart-rending disclosures were made to 
me by the heads of families of their state of society, and of their own 
intolerable sufferings in it—Society in Jimerica, 



104 BENJAMIN GODWIN E. S. ABDT. 

All men are equal in their birth, 

Heirs of the earth and skies ; 
All men are equal when that earth 

Fades from their dying eyes. 

O ! let men hasten to restore 

To ail, their rights of love : 
In power and wealth exult no uioie ; 

In wisdom lowly move. 

Ye great '. renoiince your earth-bom pride, 

Ye low ! your shame and fear: 
Live as ye worship, side by side ; 

Your common claims revere. 

BENJAMIN GODWIN. 

It is a man's interest, we know, to use his cattle well, and to take 
care that those who work them treat them properly; but, notwith- 
standing this, does not the brute Creation groan under the cruelties of 
man ? ^How many are injured through mere wantoness ! how many 
through thoughtlessness! and how many a noble animal has been 
shamefully abused in the moment of passion ! Besides, the owners of 
cattle are not always with them, and may even never see many of 
them ; and men who have no interest in them may have the care and 
the working of them. Certainly in the opinion of our legislature, this 
motive was not deemed sufficient, or why v.as an Act of Parhament 
passed to prevent cruelty to animals ? Aiid for similar reasons the 
interest of the slave-owner in his slaves is no sufficient security against 
ill treatment. Thoughtlessness, wantonness, inebriety, the ebullitions 
of anger, or that irritation which blinds the mind even to a man's own 
interests, may work misery to the slave — as in the case of the young 
gentleman already mentioned, who shot a slave for sport; or of Mr. 
and Mrs. Moss, for instance, who by a series of cruelties, destroyed a 
female who might long have served them. 

E. S. ABDY. 

To talk of a slave's labor being due to his master, is to insult com- 
mon sense and common decency. While the latter can coin dollars 
out of the sweat and tears of his victim he will do so. " The law 
allows it, and the court awards it." It is tliis clause, however, in the 
constitution, wliich renders the free states tributary to the ambition of 
the slave states, and accessories to all their guilt ; — makes the boasted 
asylum of the persecuted, the prison-house of the unfortunate ; and 
converts the guardians of liberty, into the turnkeys of its assassins. 

I can truly and honestly declare, that the orderly and obliging be- 
haviour, I observed among them, the decent and comfortable arrange- 
ments I witnessed in their houses— the anxiety they expressed for the 
education of their children, and their own improvement — the industry 
which was apparent in all about them, and the intelligence which 
marked their conversation — their sympathy for one another, and the 
respect they maintained for themselves — the absence of vindictive 
feeling against the whites, and the gratitude they evinced towards 



WESTMINSTER REVIEW. 105 

every one who treats them with common civility and regard, — far sur- 
passed the expectation I had formed, of finding among them some- 
tliing more elevated than the instinct of monkeys united to the passions 
of men. They are "not only almost, but altogether such as" the 
white man — except the bonds he has fastened on their bodies or their 
minds. — Residence and Tour in, the United States, J833 — 1835. 

WESTMINSTER REVIEW. 

If the reader rises from the perusal of these volumes of E. S. Abdy 
with a highly reduced opinion of American intellect and morals, and 
a strong sense of the insult put upon the liberals of Europe by the 
affectation of fraternity with which they have been honored, it will be 
accompanied with an increased hatred of oppression, and increased 
love of liberty as a principle. With a form of government vastly more 
favorable for human improvement than that of their English progenitors, 
the Americans, probably from the etiect of climate, which has pro- 
duced so many other variations in the animal kingdom, have gone 
backward and not forward, and present a caricature of all the worst 
qualities of the worst Englishmen of the worst times. Slavery is so 
utterly abhorrent to every respectable individual in this country, that 
it would be a waste of argument to reason against its continuance ; 
while those who have profited by it, like others who have been guilty 
of nefarious practices, are beyond the pale of reason on the subject. 

The tearing asunder family ties, the banishment, the mart, the 
jealous confinement and surveillance of new masters, the whole horrors 
of the slave-trade, are brought into active operation in the heart of the 
United States, whose citizens the while, expect to sit at table >vith 
civilized men, and be treated with more reverence than the kindred 
barbarians of Ashantee. 

Bad as is the state of the slaves in the more northern states, they 
uniformly regard the South with more honor than our thieves at home 
do the hulksf The loss by death alone to the Louisiana planters, in 
bnnging slaves from the North, is estimated at twenty-five per cent. 
The°sugar factories and rice swamps, the slaves know to be rapid 
and rough highroads to the grave. And they are well acquainted with 
the stories of'the greater rigor of the southern drivers. It is true that 
the more respectable Virginian proprietors decline selling their negroes 
so long as they conduct themselves to their satisfaction, and even make 
this rule in some degree a point of honor. 

Mr. Abdy's book reads a moral lesson to the American people 
which cannot be too much insisted on. It is the right of the civilized 
world to combine in placing them in quarantine till they are less dis- 
creditable to their ancestors. Will any Englishman sit at meat with 
a nation that sell one another by loeight ? 

It is by no means certain, that civilization did not come to Egjjpt 
out of Etiiiopia ; and it is quite certain that tlie Indians, who pass for 
" black follows" in the vocabulary of these white philosophers, were a 
civilized and learned race, when our progenitors were paintmg their 
skins and roasting one another alive. 



106 FOREIGN REVIEWS LON. EVANGELICAL MAGAZINE. 



EDINBURGH REVIEW. 

Every American who loves his country, should dedicate his whole 
life, and every faculty of his soul, to efface the foul blot of slavery from 
its character. If nations rank, according to their wisdom and their 
virtue, what right has the American, a scourger and murderer of slaves, 
to compare himself with the least and lowest of the European nations, 
much more with this great and humane country, where the greatest 
lord dare not lay a finger on the meanest peasant? What is fi-eedom 
where all are not free ? where the greatest of God's blessings are limited, 
with impious caprice to the color of the body ? And these are men 
who taunt the English with their corrupt parliament, with their buying 
and selling votes. Let the world judge which is the most liable to 
censure — we, who in the midst of rottenness, have torn the manacles 
off slaves all over the world ; or they who, with their idle purity and 
useless perfection, have remained mute and careless while groans 
echoed and whips cracked round the very walls of their spotless con- 
gress. We wish well to America — we rejoice in her prosperity — and 
are delighted to resist the absurd impertinence with which the character 
of her people is often treated in this country. But the existence of slavery 
in America is an atrocious crime, with which no measures can be kept 
— for which her situation affords no sort of apology — which makes liberty 
itself disgusted, and the boast of it disgusting. — No. LXI. Art. Travel- 
lers in America. 

THE FOREIGN aUARTERLY REVIEW. 

It is notorious, that, notwithstanding all the treaties which have been 
concluded between England and other countries for the abolition of 
the slave-trade, it is still carried on to an enormous extent, because, 
even if the governments were really sincere in their wishes to suppress 
this trade, their subjects were wholly averse to a step which they 
denounced as utter ruin to all interested in the colonies. They have 
therefore persisted in spite of, perhaps with the connivance of their 
governments ; and in Brazil in particular, it has been officially de- 
clared to be out of the power of the legislature to put an end to the 
traffic. 

Let England call on the governments of Europe not to allow the im- 
portation of colonial produce from any counti-y where it can be proved that 
the slave-trade is still carried on, either icith the sanction or connivance 
of the government, or in spite of it ; such a measure would surely act as 
a check on tlic importation of slaves. Could that point be effectually 
attained, it might be hoped that the extinction of slavery itself would 
in due time succeed, as it has done in the British colonies. 

LONDON EVANGELICAL MAGAGINE. 

The United States of America present to the world one of the most 
extraodinary spectacles that can be conceived of by the mind of man. 
They are a hu£^e moral and political enigma. We behold part of the 
population priding themselves on the peculiar freedom of their institu- 



GEORGE FOX THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 107 

tions, and holding the other part in the shackles of slavery. — Alas, 
that a figure with so goodly a bust should terminate in the shmy folds 
of the serpent ! 

It is melancholy to behold such a monstrosity, a people judging 
their own rights with the incontrovertible declaration, " that all men 
are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with cer- 
tain inalienable rights; that among these are life, libert}', and the 
pursuit of happiness ;" and at the same instant depriving their fellow- 
men perpetually of two of these " inalienable rights," and often directly 
or indirectly of the third. Most heartily do we concur with our 
America! brethren in the sentiment we here quote. We concur with 
them when they claim to be free from oppression, but we dissent from 
them when they claim also to be free to oppress. The national 
emblem of the American states requires alteration to make it truly 
emblematical of their present and past condition. The eagle, with 
liberty on his wings, should, to complete the resemblance, clutch in 
his talons the manacled and writhing form of the colored man. 

GEORGE FOX. 

In the West Indies, he exhorted those who attended his meetings, 
to be mwciful to their slaves, and to give them their freedom in due 
time. He considered these as belonging to their families, and that 
reUgious instruction was due to these as the branches of them, for whom, 
one day or other, they would be required to give a solemn account. 
Hapoy had it been if these Christian exhortations had been attended 
to, or if these families only, whom he thus seriously addressed, hud 
continued to be true Gluakers ; for they would have set an example, 
which would have proved to the rest of the islanders and the world at 
large, that the impolicy is not less than the wickedness of oppression. 
Thus was George Fox, probably the first person who publicly de- 
clared against this species of slavery. Nothing, in short, that could 
be deplored by humanity, seems to liave escaped his eye ; and his 
benevolence, when excited, appears to have suffered no interruption in 
its progress by the obstacles which bigotry would have thrown in the 
way ot^many, on account of the difference of a person's country, or of 
his color, or of his sect." — Portraiture of Quakerism. 

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

" In the first place they have made it a rule that no person, ac- 
knowledcred to be in profession with them, shall have any concern in 
the slave-trade. 

"The Gluakers began to consider this subject, as a Christian body, 
so early as in the beginning of the last century. In the year 1727, 
they passed a public censure upon this trade. In the year 1758, and 
afterwards in the year 1761, they warned and exhorted all in profes- 
sion with them, 'to keep their hands clear of this unrighteous gain 
of oppression.' In the yearly meeting of 1763, they renewed their 
exhortation in the following words : 

" < We renew our exhortation, that Friends everywhere be eepe- 



103 JAMES BEATTIE. 

cially careful to keep their hands clear of giving encouracrement in 
any shape to the slave-trade ; it being evidently destructive of the 
natural rights of mankind, who are all ransomed by one Saviour, and 
visited by one divine light, in order to salvation ; a traffic calculated 
to enrich and aggrandize some upon the miseries of others ; in its 
nature abhorrent to every just and tender sentiment, and contrary to 
the whole tenor of the gospel." 

"In tlie same manner from the year 1763, they have publicly 
manifested a tender concern for the happiness of the injured Africans, 
and they have not only been vigilant to see that none of their own 
members were conccrnd in this nefarious traffic, but they have lent their 
assistance wiih other Christians in promoting its discontinuance. — 
Thomas Clarkson''s Portaiture of Q^uakerism. 

JAMES BEATTIE. 

It is well observed by the wisest of poets (as Atheneus, quoting the 
passage, justly calls,) /fome?-, who lived when slavery was common, 
and whose knowledge of the human heart is unquestionable, that 
" When a man is made a slave, he loses from that day the half of his 
virtue." And Lo)iginus, quoUng the same passage, affirms, " Slavery, 
however mild, may still be called the poison of the soul, and a public 
dungeon." And Tacitus remarks, that " Even wild animals lose 
their spirit when deprived of their freedom." All history proves, and 
every rational philosopher admits, that as liberty promotes virtue and 
genius, slavery debases the understanding and corrupts the heart of 
both the slave and the master, and that in a greater or less degree, as 
it IS more or less srverc. So that in this plea of the slave-monger, we 
have an example of that diabolical casuistry, whereby the tempter and 
corrupter endeavors to vindicate or gratify himself, by accusing those 
whom he himself has tempted or corrupted. 

Slavery is inconsistent with the dearest and most essential rights of 
man's nature ; it is detrimental to virtue and to industry ; it hardens 
the heart to those tender sympathies which form the most lovely part 
of human character ; it involves the innocent in hopeless misery, in 
order to procure wealth and pleasure for the authors of that misery; it 
seeks to degrade into brutes beings whom the Lord of heaven and 
earth endowed with rational souls, and created for immortality; in 
short, it is utterly repugnant to every principle of reason, reljo-ion, 
humanity, and conscience. It is impossible for a considerate and un- 
prejudiced mind to think of slavery without horror. That a man, a 
rational and immortal being, should be treated on the same footing 
with a beast or piece of wood, and bought and sold, and entirely sub- 
jected to the will of another man, whose equal he is by nature, and 
whose superior he may be in virtue and- understanding, and all for no 
crime, but merely because he was born in a certain country, or of cer- 
tain parents, or because he differs from us in the shape of his nose, the 
color of his skin, or the size of his lips ; if this be ecjuitable, or excu- 
sable, or pardonable, it is vain to talk any longer ot the eternal dis- 
tinctions of ri^ht and wrong, truth and falsehood, good and evil, li 
has been said that negroes are animals of a nature inferior to mon. 



W. ROBERTSON, D. D WARBURTON DR. PRIMATT. 109 

between whom and the brutes, they hold, as it were, the middle place. 
But though this were true, it would not follow that we have a right 
either to debase ourselves by a habit of cruelty, or to use them ill ; *for 
even beasts, if inoffensive, are entitled to gentle treatment, and we 
have reason to believe that they who are not merciful will not obtain 
mercy. 

The same sentiments are found in Pliny and Columella, who both 
impute the decay of husbandry, in their time, not to any deficiency in 
the soil, but to the unwise policy of Inaving to the management of 
slaves those fields, wliich, says Plmy, "had formerly rejoiced under 
the laurelled ploughshare and the triumphant ploughman," Rollin, 
with good reason, imputes to the same cause the present barrenness 
of Palestine, which in ancient times was called the land flowing with 
milk and honey. — Elements of Moral Science. 

WILLIAM ROBERTSON, D. D. 

In the ancient world .... the persons, tlie goods, the children of 
these slaves, were the property of their masters, disposed of at plea- 
sure, and transferred, like any other possession, from one hand to 
another. No inequality, no superioritv in newer, no pretext of con- 
sent can justify this ignomonious depression or T'ln^^n nature, cr can 
confer upon one man the n^nt o^ d.'^ ...en over another. Put not 
only doth reason condemn tii:s w^siitution as ur.ias*^ ■ '^s"''en8nce pnjved 
it to be pernicious both to masters anu isiaves. The elevation of tne 
former inspired them with pride, insolence, impatience, cruelty, and 
voluptuousness; the dependant and hopeless state of the latter de- 
jected the human mind, and extin^uibneti every generous and noble 
principle in the heart — Sermon. 

BISHOP WARBUST^N. 

" From the free savages I now come to the savages in bcriCiS. By 
these I mean the vast multitudes yearly stolen from the opposite con- 
tinent, and sacrificed by the colonists to their great idol the god of 
gain. But what, then, say these sincere worshippers of mammon / 
They are our own property which we offer up. Gracious God .' to 
talk, as of herds of cattle, of property in rational creatures, creat .es 
endued with all our faculties, possessing all our qualities but t,r.d of 
color, our brethren both by nature and grace, shocks all the ietlings 
of humanity, and the dictates of common sense! But, a'.jLo! what 
is there, in the infinite abuses of society, which does not s'lOck them ? 
Yet nothing is more certain in itself and apparent to ?li, uian that the 
infamous traffic for slaves directly infringes both r" vine and human 
law. Nature created man free, and grace invites him to assert nis 
freedom. — Sermon, 1776. 

DR. PRIMATT. 

It has pleased God to cover some men with white si' iis, and other n 
with black ; but as there is neither merit nor dem^i-it in comp's. on, 
the white roan, notwithstanding the barbarity of et>?tom and nrej.idic*. 
10 



110 DR. PECKARD JOHN WBSLET. 

can have no right by virtue of his color to enslave and tyrannize over 
the black man. For whether a man be white or black, such he is by 
God's appointment, and, abstractly considered, is neither a subject for 
pride, nor an object of contempt — Dissertation on the Duty oj Mercy^ 
and on the Sin of Cruelty to Brute Animals. 

DR. PECKARD. 

"Now, whether we consider the crime with respect to the indi- 
viduals concerned in this most barbarous and cruel traffic, or whether 
we consider it as patronised and encouraged by the laws of the land, it 
presents to our view an equal degree of enormity. A crime, founded 
on a dreadful pre-eminence in wickedness; a crime which being both 
of individuals and the nation, must some time draw down upon us the 
heaviest judgment of Almighty God, who made of one blood all the 
sons of men, and who gave to all equally a natural riglit to liberty ; 
and who, ruling all the kingdoms of the earth with equal providential 
justice, cari.iot suffer such deliberate, such monstrous iniquity, to pass 
long unpunished." — Sermon before the Cambridge University. 

70HN WESLEY. 

That execrable sum of all villanies commonly called the slave-trade. 
I read of nothing like it in the heathen world, whether ancient or 
modern. It infinitely exceeds every instance of barbarity, whatever 
Christian slaves suffer in Mohammedan countries. — His ivorks, Vol. 3^ 
page 341. 

At Liverpool, many large ships are now laid up in the docks, which 
had been employed for many years in buying or stealing Africans, and 
selling them in America for slaves. The men-butchers have now 
nothing to do at this laudable occupation. Since the American war 
broke out, there is no demand for human cattle ; so the men of Africa, 
as well as Europe, mav enjoy their native liberty. — Journal of 
April, 1777. 

THOUGHTS ON SLAVERY. 

L Slavery imports an obligation of perpetual service ; an obligation 
which only the consent of the master can dissolve. It generally gives 
the master an arbitrary power of any correction not affecting life or 
limb. Sometitnes even those are exposed to his will, or protected only 
by a fine or some slight punishment, too inconsiderable to restrain a 
master of harsh temper. It creates an incapacity of acquiring any 
thing, except for the master's benefit. It allows the master to alienate 
the slave in the same manner as his cows and horses. Lastly, it de- 
scends in its full extent, from parent to child, even to the last generation. 

2. TImj grand plea is, "They are authorized by law." But can law, 
human law, change the nature of things ? Can it turn darkness into 
light, or evil into good ? By no means. Notwithstanding ten thou- 
sand laws, right is right, and wrong is wrong. There must still re- 
mam an essential difference between justice and injustice, cruelty and 
mercy. So that I ask ; Who can reconcile this treatment of the slaves, 



JOHN WESLEY. Ill 

first and last, with either mercy or justice ; where is the justice of in- 
flicting the severest evils on those who have done us no wrong? Of 
depriving those who never injured us in word or deed, of every comfort 
of life ? Of tearing them (rom their native country, and depriving 
them of liberty itself; to which an Angolan has the same natural right 
as an American, and on which he set? as high a value? Where is the 
justice of taking away the lives of innocent, inofiensive men ? Mur- 
dermg thousands of them in their own land by the hands of their own 
countrymen ; and tens of thousands in that cruel slavery, to which 
they are so unjustly reduced? 

"When we have slaves, it is necessary to use them with severity." 
What, to xohip them for evei'y petty offence till they are in a gore of blood 7 
To take thai opportunity of rubbing pepper and salt into their raw flesh ? 
To drop burni)ig sealing-ioaxupon their skins ? To castrate them ? To 
cut off half their foot with an axe ? To hang them on gibbets, that they 
may die by inches with heat, and hunger, and thirst ? To pin them doicn 
to the ground, and then burn them by degrees from the feet to the head 7 
To roast them alive 7 When did a Turk or a heathen find it necessary 
to use a fellow-creature thus ? To what end is this usage necessary? 
" To prevent their running away, and to keep them constantly to their 
labor, that they may not idle away their time. So miserably stupid is 
this race of men, so stubborn and so wicked !" Allowing this, to whom 
is that stupidity owing? It lies altogether at the door of their inhuman 
masters, who gave them no means, no opportunity of improving their 
understanding ; and indeed leave them no motive, either from hope or 
fear to attempt any such thing. They were no way remarkable for 
stupidity while they remained in Africa. To some of the inhabitants 
of Europe they are greatly superior. Survey the natives of Benin, 
and of Lapland. Compare the Samoeids and the Angolans- The 
African is in no respect inferior to the European. Their stupidity in 
our colonies is not natural ; otherwise than it is the natural effect of 
their condition. Consequently it is not their fault, but yours: and 
you must answer for it before God and man. " But their stupidity is 
not the only reason of our treating them with severity ; for it is hard to 
say which is the greatest, this, or their stubbornness, and wickedness." 
But do not these, as well as the other, lie at yow door? Are not 
stubbornness, cunning, pilfering, and divers other vices, the natural 
necessary fruits of slavery, in every age and nation ? What means 
have you used to remove this stubbornness ? Have you tried what 
mildness and gentleness would do? What pains have you taken, 
what method have you used to reclaim them from their wickedness ? 

O thou God of love, thou who art loving to every man, and whose 
mercy is over all thy works ; thou who art the Father of the spirits of 
all flesh, and who art rich in mercy unto all ; thou who hast formed of 
one blood, all the nations upon the earth ; have compassion upon these 
outcasts of men, who are trodden down as dung upon the earth ! 
Arise, and help these that have no helper, whose blood is spdled upon 
the <^round like water! Are not these also the work of thme own 
hands, the purchase of thy Son's blood ? Stir them up to cry unto 
fthee in the land of their captivity ; and let their complaint come up 



112 ADAM CLARKE. THOMAS SCOTT. 

before thee ; let it enter into thine ears ! Make even those that lead 
them captive to pity them and turn their captivity. O burst thou all 
their chains in sunder ; more especially the chains of their sins : thou 
Saviour of all, make them free, that they may be free indeed ! 

ADAM CLARKE. 

Isaiah Iviii, 6. — Let the oppressed go free. How can any nation 
pretend to fast, or worship God at all, or dare profess that they believe 
in the existence of such a Being, while they carry on what is called 
the slave-trade : and traffic in the souls, blood, and bodies of men ! O 
ye most flagitious of knaves and worst of hypocrites ! cast off' at once 
the mask of religion, and deepen not your endless perdition by profess- 
ing the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, while you continue in this 
traffic ! 

THOMAS SCOTT. 

Exodus xxi, 16. — " He that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he 
be found in his hands, he shall surely be put to death." Stealing a 
man in order to sell him for a slave, whether the thief had actually sold 
him, or whether he continued in his possession. He who stole any one 
of the human family, in order to make a slave of him, should be punish- 
ed with death. The crime would be aggravated by sending them 
away into foreign countries to be slaves to idolaters. 

Deuteronomy xxiv, 7. — "If a man be found stealing any of his 
brethren of the children of Israel, and maketh merchandise of him, or 
selleth him, then THAT THIEF SHALL DIE."— Every man is 
now our brother, whatever be his nation, complexion or creed. How 
then can the merchandise of men and women be carried on, without 
transgressing this commandment, or abetting those who do ? A man 
may steal, or purchase of those who do steal, hundreds of men and 
women, and not only escape with impunity, but grow great like a 
prince. According to the law of God, whoever stole cattle restored 
four or five fold ; lohoever stole one human being, though an infant or an 
idiot, must die. 

1. Timothy i, 10. — " Men-stealers." — Men-stealers are inserted 
among those daring criminals against whom the law of God directed 
its awful curses. Persons who kidnapped men to sell them for slaves. 
This practice seems inseparable from the other iniquities and oppres- 
sions of slavery ; nor can a slave-dealer by any means keep free from 
that atrocious criminality, if the receiver be as bad as the thief. They 
who encourage that unchristian traffic by purchasing that, which is 
thus unjustly acquired, are partakers of their crimes. — Macknight. — 
That is the only species of theft xohich is pxmished with death by the laws 
of God. 

James ii, 12, 13. — "So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be 
judged by the law of libertv. 

*' For he shall have judgment without mercy that hath showed no 
mercy, and mercy rejoiceth against judgment." On this verse Dr. 
Scott makes the following remarks — '* All who are not taught to show 



SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE. 113 

mercy to others, must expect to be dealt with according to the severity 
of justice in respect to their eternal state. Wiiat then must be the 
doom of the cruel oppressors and iniquitous tyrants of the human spe- 
cies? But the hard-hearted, selfish, implacable, and oppressive pro- 
fessor of Christianity, has the greatest cause to tremble ; for if ' he 
shall have judgment without mercy, who hath shown no mercy,' the 
meanest slave that ever was whipt and worked to death, must he con- 
sidered as happy, compared with his haughty cruel tyrant, and this 
shall sullicieutly appear, ' when the earth shall disclose her blood, and 
shall no more cover her slain.'" 

Revelation xviii, 13. — '* Slaves and souls of men." — Not only slaves, 
but the souls of men are mentioned as articles of commerce, which is 
beyond comparison, the most infamous of all traffics that the demon 
of avarice ever devised ; almost infinitely more atrocious, than the 
accursed slave-trade. Alas! too often, injustice, oppression, fraud, 
avarice, or excessive indulgence are connected with extensive com- 
merce ; and to mimber the persons of men, with oxen, asses, sheep and 
horses, as the stock of a farm, or with bales of goods, as the cargo of a 
ship, is no doubt a most detestable and atiti- christian practice. — ScotVs 
Commentaries on the Bible. 

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE, 

We have offended, Oh ! my countrymen ! 
We have offended very grievously, 
And been most tyrannous. From east to west 
A groan of accusation pierces Heaven ! 
The wretched plead against us ; nmltitudes 
Countless and vehement, the sons of God, 
Our brethren I Like a cloud that travels on, 
Steam'd up from Cairo's swamps of pestilence, 
Even so, my countrymen ! have we gone forth 
And borne to distant tribes slavery and pangs, 
And deadlier far our vices, whose deep taint 
With slow perdition murders the whole man. 
His body and his soul ! 

Sibylline Leaves. 

There are truths so self-evident, or so immediately and palpably 
deduced from those that are, or are acknowledged for such, thai they 
are at once intelligible to all men who possess the common advan- 
tages of the social litate ; although by sophistry, by evil habit, by the 
neglect, false persuasions and impostures of an Anti-Christian priest- 
hood joined in one conspiracy with the violence of tyrannical governors, 
the understandings of men have become so darkened and their con- 
sciences so lethargic, that there may arise a necessity for the republi- 
cation of these truths, and this too with a voice of loud alarm and im- 
passioned warning. Such were the doctrines proclaimed by the first 
christians to the pagan world ; such were the lightnings flashed by 
Wickliff, Huss, Luther, Calvin, Zuinglius, Latimer, &c., across the 
papal darkness, and such in our time Ihe truths with which Thomas 
Clark son, and his excellent confederates, the Quakers, fought and 
conquered the legalized banditti of men-stealers, the numerous and 



114 JAMES STEPHEN, E8<1. 

powerful perpetrators and advocates of rapine and murder, and (of 
blacker guilt than either) slavery. Truths of this kind being indispen- 
sable to man, considered as a moral being, are above all expediency, 
all accidental consequences ; for as sure as God is holy, and man 
immortal, there can be no evil so great as the ignorance or disregard 
of them. It is the very madness of mock prudence to oppose the 
removal of a poisonous dish on account of the pleasant sauces or 
nutritious viands which would be lost with it ! The dish contains 
destruction to that, for which alone we wish the palate to be gratified 
or the body to be nourished. — The Friend, pages 49, 50. 

JAMES STEPHEN, Esq. 

Enough was known before ; more than enough was incontrovertibly 

{jroved ; nay, enough was always admitted or undenied, to make the 
egislative toleration of this slavery a disgrace to the British and 
Christian name. Iniquity, indeed, of every kind loses in human de- 
testation what it gains in mischief, by wide unreproved diffusion, and 
by age. We sin remorselessly, because our fathers sinned, and 
because multitudes of our own generation sin, in the same way without 
discredit. But if ever those most flagitious crimes of Europe, slave- 
trade and colonial slavery, shall cease to be tolerated by human laws, 
and live in history alone, men will look back upon them with the horror 
they deserve ; and wonder as much at the depravity of the age that 
could establish or maintain them, as we now do at the murderous 
rites of our pagan ancestors, or the ferocious cannibal manners of 
New Zealand. 

There is enough in the simplest conception of personal hereditary 
slavery, to revolt every just and liberal mind, independently of all 
aggravations to be found in its particular origin, or in abuses of the 
master's powers. But how much should sympathy and indignation 
be enhanced, when the cruel perpetual privation of freedom, and of 
almost every civil and human right, is the punishment of no crime, nor 
the harsh consequence of public hostility in v.ar, but imposed upon 
the innocent and helpless, by the hand of rapacious violence alone ; 
and maintained for no other object but the sordid one of the master's 
profit, by the excessive labor to which they are compelled ? 

Were our merchants to send agents to buy captives from the bandits 
in the forests of Italy, or from the pirates on the Barbary coast, and 
sell them here as slaves, to work for our farmers or manufacturers ; and 
were the purchasers to claim, in consequence, a right to hold these 
victims of rapine and avarice, with their children, in bondage for ever, 
and to take their work without wages ; what would it be but the same 
identical case we are contemplating, except that the captives were of 
a different complexion? Yet the bandits and pirates are hanged ; and 
their vendees, in the case supposed, would have less to apprehend 
from actions or indictments for false imprisonment, than from the 
vengeance of indignant multitudes. It certainly, at least, would not 
be necessary, for the purpose of their deliverance, to prove to the 
British parliament or people, that the poor captives were overworked. 



NUGENT LUSHINGTON THOMPSON ETC. 1 15 

under fed, driven with whips to their work, punished in a brutal way 
for every real or imputed fault, and by such complicated oppressions 
brought in great numbers prematurely to their graves. 

LORD NUGENT. 

The slave-trade finds no one bold enough now to defend even its 
memory. And yet when we hear the slave-trade reprobated, and 
slavery defended by the same persons, I must own I think the slave- 
trade unfairly treated. The abuse of defunct slave-trade is a cheap 
price for the abettor of living slavery to pay by way of compromise. 
But we cannot allow the Colonial party on these terms to cry truce 
with us, by stigmatizing the slave-trade. There is not one general 
principle on which the slave-trade is to be stigmatized which does not 
impeach slavery itself. 

DR. LUSHINGTON. 

It has never been given by God to man to hold his fellow man in 
bondage. Every thing short of a total abolition of slavery he con- 
sidered as unsatisfactory, and ending only in disappointment and 
discontent. The supporters of the abolition of slavery took their 
stand upon the eternal principles of truth and justice, and it would 
be next to blasphemy to doubt their success. 

ANDREW THOMPSON. 

Slavery is the very Upas tree of the moral world, beneath whose 
pestiferous shade all intellect languishes, and all virtue dies. It must 
be cut down and eradicated ; it must be, root and branch of it, cast 
into the consuming fire, and its ashes scattered to the four winds of 
heaven. It is thus you must deal with slavery. You must annihilate 
it, — annihilate it now, and annihilate it for ever. 

ROWLAND HILL. 

Slavery is made up of every crime that treachery, cruelty, and murder 
can invent ; and men-stealers are the veiy worst of thieves. The 
most knavish tricks are practised by these dealers in human flesh ; 
and if slaves think of our general character, they must suppose that 
christians are devils, and that Christianity was forged in hell. 

GROTIUS. 

Those are men-stealers, who abduct, keep, sell, or buy slaves or 
freemen. To steal a man is the highest kind of thefl. 

POPE LEO, X. 

Not only the christian religion, but Nature herself cries out against 
a state of slavery. 



116 



THE HOLY BIBLE. 



THE HOLY BIBLE. 



Moses. — Chap. 7, ver. 27. So 
God created man in his oivn 
image : in the image of God cre- 
ated he him ; male and female 
created he them. — Genesis. [JVoi 
tyrants and slaves.] 

XXI, 16. And he that stealeth 
a man, and sellcth him, or if he 
be found in his hand, he shall 
surely be put to death. 

XXIII, 9. Also thou shalt not 
oppress a stranger : for ye know 
the heart of a stranger, seeing ye 
were strangers m the land of 
Egypt. — Exodus. 

^XIX, 13. Thou shalt not de- 
fraud thy neighbor, neither rob 
him : the wages of him that is 
hired shall not abide with thee all 
riight until the morning. 

J 8. Thou shalt love thy neigh- 
bor as thyself. 

.33. And if a stranger sojourn 
with thee m your land, ye shall 
not vex him. 

XXV, 10. And ye shall hallow 
the fiftieth year, and proclaim 
liberty throughout all the land 
unto all the inhabitants thereof; 
it shall be a jubilee unto you ; and 
ye shall return every man unto his 
possession, and ye shall return 
every man unto his family. — 
Leviticus. 

XV, 14. Thou shalt not op- 
press an hired servant that is poor 
and needy, whether he he of thy 
brethren, or of tliy strangers that 
are in thy land within thy gates. 

XXI 1 1, 15. THOU SHALT 
NOT DKLIVER UNTO HIS 
MASTER THE SERVANT 
WHICH IS ESC APRD FROM 
HIS MASTER UNTO THEE. 
— Deuteronomy 



Job. — Chap. IV, ver. 8. Even 
as I have seen, they that plow 
iniquity, and sow wickedness, 
reap the same. 

XV, 20. The wicked man 
travaileth with pain all his days, 
and the number of years is hidden 
to the oppressor. 

XX, J8. That which he labor- 
ed for shall he restore, and shall 
not swallow it down : accordincr 
to his substance shall the restitution 
be, and he shall not rcjoicethereu^. 

19. Because he hath oppressed 
and hath forsaken the poor ; oe- 
cause he hath violently taken 
away an house which he builded 
not: 

David.— Ps. XVIII, ver, 25 
With the merciful thou wilt shew 
thyself merciful ; with an upright 
man thou wilt shew thyself up- 
right ; 

27. For thou wilt save the 
afflicted people ; but wilt bring 
down high looks. 

LXX11,4. He shall judge the 
poor of the people, he shall save 
the children of the needy, and 
shall break in pieces the oppres- 
sor. — Psalms. 

Solomon. — Chap. Ill, ver. 1. 
And Solomon made afiinity with 
Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and took 
Pharaoh's daughter, and brought 
herinto the city of David. 1 Kini^s. 

I, 24. Because I have called 
and ye refused ; I have stretched 
out my hand, and no man re- 
garded ; 

25. But ye have set at nought 
all my counsel, and would none 
of my reproof: 



THE HOLY BIBLE. 



117 



26. I also will laugh at your 
calamity ; I will mock when your 
fear cometh ; — Praverbs. 

IV, 1. So I returned, and con- 
sidered all the oppressions that 
are done under the sun : and be- 
hold, the tears of such as were op- 
pressed, and they had no com- 
forter ; and on the side of their 
oppressors there ivas power; but 
they had no comforter. — Eccle- 
siastes. 

Isaiah.— Chap. V, ver. 20. Woe 
unto them that call evil good, and 
good evil ; that put darkness for 
light, and light for darkness ; that 
put bitter for sweet, and sweet for 
bitter ! 

LVIIT, 6. Is not this the fast that 
I have chosen ? to loose the bands 
of wickedness, to undo the heavy 
burdens, and to let the oppressed 
go free, and that ye break every 
yoke? 

Jeremiah. — Chap. XXXIV, ver. 
17. Therefore thus saith the Lord, 
"Ye have not hearkened unto me, 
in proclaiming liberty, every one 
to his brother, and every man to 
his neighbor : behold, I proclaim 
a liberty for you saith the Lord, 
to the sword, to the pestilence, 
and to the famine ; and I will 
make you to be removed into all 
the kingdoms of the earth. 

Jesus Christ. 

Chap. V, ver. 7. Blessed are 
the merciful : for they shall obtain 
mercy. 

VII, 2. For with what judg- 
ment ye judge, ye shall be judged : 
a--.i with what' measure ye mete, 
it shall be measured to you again. 

12. Therefore all things what- 
soever ye would that men should 
do to you, do ye even so to them : 
for this is the law and the pro- 
phets. 



IX, 13. But go ye and learn 
what that meaneth, I will have 
mercy, and not sacrifice.: for I 
am not come to call the righteous, 
but sinners to repentance. 

XXIII, 8. But be ye not called 
Rabbi: for one is your Master, 
even Christ ; and all ye are bre- 
thren. 

XXV, 45. Verily, I say unto 
you, inasmuch as ye did it not to 
one of the least of these, ye did it 
not to me. — St. Mattheio''s Gospel. 

IV, 8. To preach deliverance 
to the captives, and recovering of 
sight to the blind, to set at liberty 
them that are bruised. — St. Luke. 

St. Peter. — Chap. X, ver. 34. 
IT Then Peter opened his mouth, 
and said. Of a truth I perceive that 
God is no respecter of persons : 

35. But in every nation he that 
feareth him, and worketh right- 
eousness, is accepted with hi:i). — 
.ids. 

Ill, 8. Finally, be ye all of one 
mirwl, having compassion one of 
another ; love as brethren, be 
pitiful, be courteous; — 1st Epistle. 

St. Paul. — Chap. II, ver. 6. 
Who will render to ever man ac- 
cording to his deeds. 

II. For there is no respect of 
persons with God. — Epistle to the 
Romans. 

XVII, 26. And hath made of 
one blood all nations of men for 
to dwell on the face of the earth, 
and hath determined the times be- 
fore appointed, and the bounds 
of their habitation. — ^Icts. 

III, 17. Now the Lord is that 
Spirit: and where the Spirit of 
the Lord is, there is liberty. 

VIII, 14. But by an equality, 
that now at this time your abim- 
dance may be a supply for their 
want, tliat their abundance also 



118 



THE HOLY BIBLE. 



may be a supply for your want, 
that there may be equahty. — 
2 Corinthians. 

V, 1. Stand fast therefore in 
the hberty wherewith Christ has 
made us free, and be not entangled 
again with the yoke of bondage. 

13. For, bretliren, ye have been 
called unto liberty ; only use not 
liberty for an occasion to the flesh, 
but by love serve one another. 

14. For all the law is fulfilled 
in one word, even in tliis, Thou 
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. 
— Galatians. 

V, 9. And, ye masters, do the 
same things unto them, forbearing 
threatening : knowing that your 
Master also is in heaven ; neither 
is there respect of persons with 
him. — Ephesians. 

111,25. But he that doeth wrong 
shall receive for the wrong which 
he hath done : and there is no 
respect of persons. 

IV, 1. Masters, give unto yotir 
Servants that which is just and 
equal ; knowing that ye also have 
a Master which is in heaven. — 
Colossians. 

XIII, 3. Remember them that 
are in bonds, as bound with them ; 
and them which suffer adversity, 
as being yourselves also in the 
body. — Hebrews. 

St. Jamrs. — Chap. II, ver. 6. 
But ye have despised the poor. 
Do r.^*.rich men oppress you, and 
draw you before the judgment- 
seats ? 

8. If ye fulfil the royal law ac- 



cording to the scripture, Thou 
shalt love thy neighbor as thyselfj 
ye do well : 

9. But if ye have respect to 
persons, ye commit sin, and are 
convinced of the law as trans- 
gressors. 

St. John.— Chan. IV, ver. 20. 
If a man say, I love God and 
hateth his brother, he is a liar: 
for he that loveth not his brother 
whom he hath seen, how can he 
love God whom he hath not seen ? 

21. And tliis commandment 
have we from him. That he who 
loveth God love his brother also. 
— 1st Epistle. 

XIII, 9. If any man have an 
ear, let him hear. 

10. He that leadeth into cap- 
tivity, shall go into captivity : he 
that killeth with the sword, must 
be killed with the sword. 

11. And the merchants of the 
earth shall weep and mourn over 
her ; for no man buyeth their 
merchandise any more : 

13. Fine flour, and wheat, and 
beasts, and sheep, and horses, and 
chariots, and slaves and souls of 
men. 

XX, 13. And the sea gave up 
the dead which were in it ; and 
death and hell delivered up the 
dead which were in them : and 
they were judged every man ac- 
cordins: to their works. 

XXII, 12. And behold I come 
quickly ; and my reward is with 
me, to give every man according 
as his work shall be. — Revelation, 



INDEX 



Abdy, E. S. - 

Abolition in Great Britain, 
" in Mexico, - 

Accounts, Authentic, &c. 

Adams, Jolin ... 
" Jolm Q. - - - 
" Samuel - - - 

Addison, Joseph ... 

Address to the Public, 

African Character, - - - 

Anti-Slavery Convention, Ohio 
" S. Society, New England 

Austria, - - . . 



BaU, Charles 
Barlow, Joel, - 
Bartow, Henry - 
Beattie, James 
Benezet, Anthony 
Best, William - 
Bible, Extracts from the 
Birney, James G. 
Blackstone, VViUiam 
Bolivar, Simon 
Boyer, Jean Pierre 
Breckenridge, Robert J. 
Brissot, Jaques Pierre 
Brougham, Henry - 
Buffon, 

Bulwer, E. L. - 
Burke, Edmund - 
Bums, Robert - 
Buxton, Thomas Powell 

Campbell, Thomas - - - 
Chandler, E. iM. - 
Channing, William E. - • 
Child, David L. - 

" Lydia Maria - . - 
Citizen of the World, - - - 
Clarke, Adam - - - - 
Clarkson, Thomas 
Clay, Henry - - - - 
Clinton, De Witt 
Cole, Governor . . - 
Coleridge, S. T. - 
Constitution of the A. A. S. S. 

" of the United States, 

" Indiana, - 

" New York, - 

" Virginia, • 



page. 
104 



. 70 
12 

- 41 
108 

- 10 
87 

- 116 
61 

- 89 
SO 

- 80 
59 

- 84 
101 

- 82 
100 

- 91 
96 

- 102 

99 

- 52 
60 

- 70 
55 

- 75 
112 

- 89 
22 

- 16 
8 

- 113 
57 

3 
4 
4 
3 



Constitution of Texas, - - 28 

Courtenay, John ... 92 

Cowper William - - - - 97 

Crandall, Prudence ... 53 

Cruelty, Cases of - - - 70 

Curran, J. P. - - - . 85 

Darwin, Erasmus - - - 99 

Day, Thomas - - - . 97 

Declaration of A. S. Convention, 50 

" of Independence, - 3 
Delevan, E. C. • - . -62 

Dickey, James H. - - 64 

Dickey, William .... 68 

Eaton, William - - 15 

Edgeworth, Maria - - - 85 
Edinburgh Review, - . 51, 106 

Edwards, Jonathan - - - 49 

Erskine, Thomas ... 94 

Evangelical Magazhie, London - 106 

Everett, A. H. - - - - 74 



Foreign Quarterly Review, 
Fox, Charles James 

" George . . . 
France, - - . - 
Francis, Philip - - . 
Franklin, Benjamin - 
Friends, Society of . - 

Gates, Horatio 
Godwin, Benjamin 
Grattan, Henry 
Green, General Duff - 
Gregoire, H. - - - 
Grenville, George 
Grimke, S. M. and A. E. - 
Grotius, . . . . 
Guerrero, Decree of 

Henry, Patrick 
Heyrick, Elizabeth 
Hicks, Elias - 
Historical Evidence, - 
Hill, Rowland - 
Hopkins, Samuel, D. D. 
Hoy, B. - - - - 
Huddlestone, Mr. 

Indiana, Constitution of - 



106 
92 

107 
61 
93 
9 

107 

14 
104 
85 
23 
83 
95 
56 
115 
27 

II 
103 
49 
77 
115 
47 
44 
93 



120 



INDEX. 



Jackson, Andrew 


. 


■ T 


Rankin, John - 


. 


T» 


Jay, John 




12 


Ray, William 


- 


16 


Jay, William 


. 


- 43 


Raynal, Abbe 


. 


84 


Jefferson, Thomas - 




7 


Reed, William B. 


- 


35 


Johnson, Samuel 


. 


- 95 


Representatives, U. S. House of 


90 


Jones, Sir William - 




100 


Review, Edinburgh - 


51 


,106 








" Foreign Quarterly 




106 


Kenrick, John 


. 


. 50 


" Westminster 




105 


Kosciusko, 




13 


Riley, Captain - - - 




16 








Ritner, Joseph ... 




23 


Lafayette, - 


. 


6 


Robertson. William, D. D. 




109 


Leggett, William - 




63 


Roscoe, William ... 




98 


Lewis, Evan 


. 


- 62 


Rousseau, J. J. 




82 


Leo X, Pope - 




115 


Rush, Benjamin - 




10 


Liberty of the Press, 


. 


4 


Russia, .... 




81 


L'Ouverture, - 




75 








Lundy, Benjamin 


. 


- 25 


Scott, Thomas - 




112 


Lushington, Dr. 




115 


Shakspeare, William 




95 








Sharp, Archbishop 




75 


Map, Moral of the U. S. 




34 


Sharp, Granville 




89 


Marselloise Hymn, 


- 


- 81 


Sigourney, Mrs. L. H. 




54 


Martineau, Harriet - 




103 


Slave-Trade, 


4, 40, 51 


Methodist Episcopal Church, 


- 47 


Smollett, Tobias 




96 


Mexico, Abolition in 




26 


Soutliey, Robert 




99 


" Coin of - 




- 33 


Stephen, James, Esq. - 




114 


Mifflin, Warner 




15 


St. Domingo, . . - 




79 


Milton, Jolm 




- 96 


Stewart, John 




99 


Monroe, James 




12 


Stor}-, Joseph - - - 




18 


Montesquieu, 




- 82 


Swift, Jonathan . . - 




84 


Montgomery, James 




98 


Sun, New-York 




37 


Moore, Thomas - 




86 








More, Hannah - 




98 


Tappan, Letter to Mr. 




69 








" William B. 




55 


Neutrality, - - - 




- 38 


Texas, Constitution of 




28 


New England A. S. Society, - 


58 


Thompson, Andrew 




115 


New-York, Constitution of 


4 


Tomkins, Daniel D. - 




17 


" Legislature, 


. 


19 


Torrey. Jesse Jr. 




49 


Nugent, Lord 


- 


- 115 


Toussaint L'Ouverture, 




75 


O'Connell, Daniel 


. 


45,86 


United States, Constitution of 


3 


Ohfo Anti-Slavery Convention, 


58 


„ „ Map of 


- 


34 


Park, Mungo 


. 


- 72 


Virginia, Constitution of - 


- 


3 


Parliament, British - 


. 


44 








Patriot, London - 


. 


- 35 


Warburton, Bishop 


- 


109 


Peckard, Dr. - 


. 


110 


Washington, George - 




4 


Pennsylvania, Act of - 
Pierpont. Joiin - 
Pinkne' , William 


. 


8 


Wattles, A. - 


- 


69 


. 


55 


Wayland, Francis - 




59 


. 


- 14 


Webster, Daniel - 


18,42 


Piracy of the Slave-Trade. 


4 


Wesley, John - 




110 


Pitt, William 


. 


- 91 


Westminster Review, 


. 


105 


Pope, Alexander 
Postletwhaite, G. L. - 


. 


96 


Wjieatlv, Phillis 




5,76 


. 


- 36 


Whithread, Samuel - 


- 


94 


Potter, Alonzo, 


. 


60 


Whitfield, George - 




65 


Pratt, S. J. - 


. 


- 97 


W^iittier, J. G. - 


. 


54 


Preamble to Pennsylvania Act, 


8 


Wilbcrforce, William 




90 


Presbyterian Church, - 


. 


- 45 


Wilkinson. General - 


- 


39 


Primatt, Dr. 


. 


109 


Willis, N. r. - 




54 








Wilson Edward J. 


. 


36 


Randolph, Governor - 
" John 




- 21 


Wirt, William - 




19 


. 


19 


Woodbury, James T. - 


- 


62 


" Thomas J. 


- 


20 


Wordsworth, Wm 


- 76,90 



APPEiNDIX. 



SLAVE LAWS. 

Extracted chiefly from Stroud's " Sketch of the Laws relating to 
Slavery in the United States of America." 

WHO MAY BE HELD AS SLAVES. 

The law of South Carolina, to which those of all the slave states 
are similar, is as follows : — 

"All negroes, Indians, (free Indians in amity with this government, 
and negroes, mulattoes and mestizoes, who are noto tree, excepted,) 
mulattoes or mestizoes, who now are or shall hereafter be in this pro- 
vince, and all their issue and offspring bom or to be born, shall be and 
they are hereby declared to be and remain for ever hereafter absolute 
slaves, and shall follow the condition of the mother.''^ tSct of 1740 
2 Brevard's Digest, 229. 

Descendants of Indians, as well as of Africans are probably involved 
in the doom of slavery in all the slave states. In Virginia the enslave- 
ment of Indians was authorized by statute from 1679 to 1691. Those 
whose maternal ancestors have been reduced to slavery since the latter 
period, have been decided by the highest courts in that state to be free. 
So late as 1797, it was decided by the Supreme Court of Jfew Jersey, 
Chief Justice Kinsey, that Indians might be held as slaves. 

" They (Indians) have been so long recognized as slaves, in our 
law, that it would be as great a violation of the rights of property to 
establish a contrary doctrine at the present day, as it would in the 
case of Africans ; and as useless to investigate the manner in which they 
ORIGINALLY lost their freedom." The State vs. Waggoner, 1 Hd- 
stead's Reports, 374 to 376. 

Persons emancipated, but not in the prescribed form of law, are liable 
to be re-enslaved, thus in South Carolina, 

" In case any slave shall be emancipated or set free, otherwise than 
according to the act (of 1800) regulating emancipation, it shall be law- 
ful for any person xohosoever to seize and convert to his or her oxvn rise, 
and to keep as his or her property the said slave so illegally emancipated 
or set free." 2 Brevard's Digest, 256. 

And in Virginia, " If any emancipated slave (infants excepted) 
shall remain within the state more than twelve months after his or her 
right to freedom shalt have accrued, he or she shall forfeit all such 
nght, and may be apprehended and sold by the overseers of the poor, &c. 
for the benefit of the literary fund ! !" 1 Rev. Code, 436. 



2 SLAVE LAWS. 

THE POWER GRANTED BT LAW TO THE MASTER. 

According to the law of Louisiana, " A slave is one who is in the 
power of a master to whom he belongs. The master may sell him, 
dispose of his person, his industry and his labour ; he can do nothing, 
possess nothing, nor acquire any thing but what must belong to his 
master." Civil Code, art, 35. 

Li South Carolina it is expressed in the following language : 
" Slaves shall be deemed, sold, taken, reputed and judged in law to be 
chattels personal in the hands of their owners and possessors, and their 
executors, administrators and assigns, to all intents, constructions and 
purposes whatsoever." 2 Brevard's Digest, 229. 

In Louisiana, " Slaves though moveable by their nature," says the 
civil code, " are considered as immoveable by the operation of the law." 
»3rt. 461. And by act of Assembly of June 7, 1S06, "Slaves shall 
always be reputed and considered real estate ; shall be, as such, sub- 
ject to be mortgaged, according to the rules prescribed by law, and 
they shall be seized and sold as real estate." 1 J\Iartin''s Digest, 612. 
And in Kentucky, by the law of descents, they are considered real 
estate, 2 Litt. and Sici. Digest, 1155, and pass in consequence to heirs 
and not to executors. They are, however, liable as chattels to be sold 
by the master at his pleasure, and may be taken in execution in pay- 
ment of his debts. Ibid, and see 1247, 

RESTRICTIONS dF THE MASTER'S POWER. 

So fir as the law restricts the master's power at all, it only shows 
how shamefully and cruelly that power is abused — perhaps we should 
say used, for the very possession of it is an abuse. The very limitations 
leave the power of the master far beyond mercy. And so far as they 
go, they are but a mockery, by reason that the testimony of a colored 
man cannot be taken against a white one. In regard to the time 
OF LABOR, we find the following law in South Carolina : 

" Whereas many owners of slaves, and others who have the care, 
management and overseeing of slaves, do confine them so closely to hard 
labor, that they have not sxifficienl time for natural rest : Be it therefore 
enacted, That if any owner of slaves, or other person who shall have 
the care, management, or overseeing of v.ny slaves, shall work or put 
any such slave or slaves to labour more than fifteen hours in twenty- 
four hours, from the twenty-fifth day of March to the twenty-fifth 
day of September ; or more ihan fourteen hours in twenty-four hours, 
from the twenty-fifth day of September to the twenty-fifth day of 
March, every such persori shall forfeit any sum net exceeding twenty 
pounds, nor under five pounds, current money, for every time he, she 
or they shall offend herein, at the discretion of the justice before whom 
the complaint shall be made." 2 Brevard's Digest, 243. 

In Louisiana, the subjoined act was passed, July 7, 1806. " As for 
the hours of work and rest, which are to be assigned to slaves in sum- 
mer and winter, tt»e old usages of the territory shall be adhered to, to 
wit : The slaves shall be allowed half an hour for breakfast during the 



SLAVE LAWS. 8 

whole year ; from the first day of May to the first day of November, 
they shall be allowed two hours for dinner ; and from the first day of 
November to the first day of May, one hour and a half for dinner: 
Provided, however, That the owners who will themselves take the 
trouble of causing to be prepared the meals of their slaves, be, and 
they are hereby authorized to abridge, by half an hour per day, the 
time fixed for their rest." 1 J\lartin''s Digest, 610 — 12. 

Judge Stroud quotes the statutes of five legislatures by which ten 
hours out of the twenty-four is the longest space for labor which caji 
be demanded of convicted felons, sentenced to hard labor. 

Some of the states oblige the master to furnish his slaves a certain 
amount of provision's. 

Thus in Louisiana, "Every owner shall be held to give to his slaves 
the quantity of provisions hereafter specified, to wit ; one barrel of In- 
dian corn, or the equivalent thereof in rice, beans or other grain, and a 
pint of salt, and to deliver the same to the said slaves in kind every 
month, and never in money, under a penalty of a fine often dollars for 
every offence." 1 J\Iartin''s Digest, 610, act of July 7, 1S06. In North 
Carolina, a much less quantity of the same kind of food is deemed suf- 
ficient, as is implied from the following cxtrious seclion of an act passed 
in 1753, and which is still in force . " In case any slave or slaves, who 
shall not appear to have been clothed and fed according to the intent 
and meaning of this act, that is to say, to have been sufficiently c! 'hed, 
and to have constantly received for the preceding year an allo'.ance 
not less than o quart if com ptr day, shall be convicted of steali;::: any 
corn, cattle, &(•. &c. from any person not the owner of such slave or 
slaves, such injured person shall and may maintain an action of tres- 
pass against the master, owner or possessor of such slave, &.c. and 
shall recover his or her damages, &c." Hayicood's .Manual, 524-5. 

The allowance of clothixg in Louisiana, seems to have been 
graduated bv the same standard by which the quantity of food was 
determined in North Carolina. "The slave who shall not have on the 
property of their owners a lot of ground to cultivate on their own ac- 
count, shall be entitled to receive from said owner one linen shirt and 
f)antaloons (une chemise et une cidotte de toile) for the summer, and a 
inen shirt and woollen great coat and pantaloons for the winter." 
1 Martin's Digest, 610. 

The other states do not pretend to fix the kind and quantity of food 
and clothing which the slave shall receive, but some of them have 
enacted safeguards a£ainst the stinginess of the master which are not 
only perfectly nugatory, but seem to have been designed to be so. See 
Stroud, p, 32. 

THE POWER TO PCNMSH, 

Is thus restricted by the law of North Carolina: 

Section 3, of the act passed in 179S, runs thus: "Whereas by 
another act of the assembly, passed in the year 1774. the killing of a 
slave, however wanton, criiel and dehberate, is only punishable iix the 



4 SLAVE LAWS. 

first instance by imprisonment and paying the value thereof to the 
owner, which dis'inction of criminality between the murder of a white 
person and one who is equally a human creature, but merely of a different 
complexion, is disgraceful to humanity, and degrading in the 

HIGHEST DEGREE TO THE LAWS AND PRINCIPLES OF A FREE, 
CHRISTIAN AND ENLIGHTENED COUNTRY, Be it CnaCtcd, &C. That if 

any person shall hereafter be guilty of wilfully and maliciously killing 
a slave, such offender shall, upon the first conviction thereof, be ad- 
judged guilty of murder, and shall suffer the same punishment as if he 
had killed a free man ; Provided always, this act shall not extend to the 
person killing a slave outlawed by virtue of any act of assembly of this 
state, or to any slave in the act of resistance to his lawful owner or master, 

OR TO ANY SLAVE DYING UNDER MODERATE CORRECTION." HayXCOod'S 

Manual. 530 ; and see Laws of Tennessee, act of Oct. 23, 1799, with a 
like proviso. 

The Constitution of Georgia has the following: Art. 4, § 12. 

" Any person who shall mahciously dismember or deprive a slave 
of life, shall suffer such punishment as would be inflicted in case the 
like offence had been committed on a free white person, and on the 
like proof, except in case of insurrection of such slave, and unless 

SUCH DEATH SHOULD HAPPEN BY ACCIDENT IN GIVING SUCH SLAVE 

MODERATE CORRECTION." Prince's Digest, 559. 

Judge Stroud remarks, " that a proclamation of outlawry against a 
sl.ive is authorized, whenever he runs away from his master, conceals 
hiniself in some obscure retreat, and, to sustain hfe, kills c hog, or some 
aiilnal of the cattle kind ! !" -See Hayxoood's Manual, 521 ; cc/ of 1741, 
ch. 24, § 45. 

In South Carolina by the Act of 1740 the "wilful murder" of a slave 
was punished by a fine of "seven hundred pounds, current money" 
and inability to hold office, but another description of murder, more 
likely to occur, was punished as follows : — 

" If any person shall, on a sudden heat or passion, or by undue cor- 
rection, kill his own slave, or the slave of any other person, he shall 
forfeit the sum of three hundred and fifty pounds, current money." 
Brevard's Digest, 241. 

By an act of 1821, the former provision was abolished but the latter 
was continued, diminishing the price to five hundred dollars, and 
authorizing an imprisonment of six months. James' Digest, 392. 

The following protection for the Umbs of the slave has been in force, 
in South Carolina from 1740 to the present time : 

"In case any person shall wilfully cut out the tongue, put out the 
eye, castrate, or cruelly scald, burn, or deprive any slave of any limb, or 
member, or shall inflict any other cruel punishment, other than by whip- 
ping or beating with a horsewhip, cowskin, switch or !=mall stick, or 
by pulling irons oti, or confining or imprisoning such slave, every such 
person shall, for every such offence, forfeit the sum of one hundred 
Dounds, current money." 2 Brevard's Digest^ 241. 



SLAVE LAWS. 9 

But the legislatures do not occupy themselves altogether in protecting 
the slave and restraining the master. Louisiana imposes a heavier 
penalty for taking off irons than she does for the " cruel punishments,^^ 
specified above, as appears from this : 

" If any person or persons, &c. shall cut or break any iron chain or 
collar, which any master of slaves should have used in order to prevent 
the runnmg away or escape of any such slave or slaves, such person 
or persons ?o offending shall, on conviction, &c. be fined not less than 
two hundred dollars, nor exceeding one thousand dollars; and suffer 
imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, nor less than six 
months." Act of Assembly, of March G, 1819— pamphlet, page 64. 

Now in the same state, the law before quoted from South Carolina 
is in force and the penalty is a fine of not more than five hundred dollars, 
nor less than txco hundred ! 

In Missouri, the master is assisted in punishing as follows: — 

" If any slave resist his or her master, mistress, overseer or employer, 
or refuse to obey his or her lawful commands, it shall be lawful for 
such master, &c. to commit such slave to the common gaol of the 
county, there to remain at the pleasure of the master, &c. ; and the 
sheriff shall receive such slave, and keep him, &.c. in confinement, at 
the expense of the person committing him or her." 1 Missouri Lawt 309. 

POWER OF THE MASTER EXERCISED BY OTHERS. 

According to the universal practice of the slave states, the master 
may delegate his tremendous power to any other person Wi-^jm he 
pleases. Louisiana has the following express law: 

"The condition of a slave being merely a passive one, his subordi- 
nation to his master, and to all who represent him, is not suscej v<ble of 
any modification or restriction, (except in what can incite the :(lave to 
the commission of crime,) in such manner, that he owes to his master 
and to all his family a respect without bounds and an absolute obedi- 
ence, and he is consequently to execute all the orders which he receives 
from him, his said master, or from them." 1 Martin's Digest,^\6. 

SLAVES CANNOT HOLD PROPERTY. 

Thus in South Carolina : " It shall not be lawful for an f slave to 
buy, sell, trade, &c. for any goods, &c. without a license from the 
owner, &c. nor shall any slave be permitted to keep any boat, periauger 
or canoe, or raise and breed, for the benefit of such slave, my horses, 
mares, cattle, sheep or hogs, under pain of forfeiting all the goods, &c. 
and all the boats, periaugcrs, or canoes, horses, mares, catJe, sheep, or 
ho2s. And it shall be lawful for any person whatsoever, to seize and 
take away from any slave, all such j^oods, &c. boats, k:. &c. and to 
dehver the same into thehandsof any justice of the peace nearest to the 
place, where the seizure shall be made, and such just.ce shall take 
the oath of the person making such seizure, concerning the manner 
thereof; and if the said justice shall be satisfied that s^ch seizure has 



6 SLAVE LAWS. 

been made according to law, he shall pronounce and declare tlie goods 
80 seized, to be forfeited, and order the same to be sold at public out- 
cry, one half of the moneys arising from such sale to go to the state, 
and the other half to him or them that sue for the same," James* 
Digest, 385-6. .9ct of 1740. 

In Georgia, to prevent the master from permitting the slave to hire 
himself for his own benefit, there is a penalty of thirty dollars "for 
every weekly offence, on the part of the master, unless the labor be 
done on his own premises." Princess Digest, 457. In Kentucky, 
Mississippi, Tennessee, Virginia, and Missouri, there are similar laws. 

As early as the year 1779, North Carohna interposed as follows : 
" All horses, cattle, hogs or sheep, that one month after the passing of 
this act, shall belong to any slave or be of any slaveys mark, in this state, 
shall be seized and sold by the County Wardens, and by thtm applied, 
the one-half to the support of the poor of the county, and the other half to 
the informer,'''' Hayicood*s Manual, 526. 

In Mississippi, the master incurs a fine of fifty dollars by permitting 
the slave to cultivate cotton for his own use. Rev. Code, 379 ; also 
fifty dollars for permitting the slave to go at large and trade as a freeman 
Rev. Code, 374. 

The civil code of Louisiana lays down the following principles: 

" All that a slave possesses belongs to his 7naster, — he possesses 
nothing of his own, except his peculium, that is to say, the sum of 
money or moveable estate, ivhich his master chooses he should possess." 
Art. 175, and see 1 Martin's Digest, 616. "Slaves are incapable of 
inheriting or transmitting property." Civil Code, art. 945. 

SEPARATION OF FAMILIES. 

In Louisiana there is a law against selling infirm parents apart from 
their children, without their consent, but there is none against selhng 
the children apart from the parents, nor is there known to be in any 
of the other slave states, any legal restraints whatever, in regard to the 
separation of families by purchase and sale. 

THE SLAVE, AS A MAN, IS NOT UNDER THE PROTECTION OF LAW. 

He cannot bring a suit against his master or any other person for 
an injury. His master may bring an action against a third person for 
an injury of his property. But this is a poor protection of the slave, 
for, first, it weakens the motive of the master to protect the slave. If 
the injury were to come upon his own pocket he would be more careful 
to prevent it. Secondly, the master can recover nothing, unless the 
injurj' deteriorates the value — which it may not do, although in itself 
very great. The Supreme Court of Maryland has decided : 



SLAVE LAWa, 7 

" There must be, a loss ot service, or at least, a diminution of the 
faculty of the slave for bodily labor, to warrant an action by the mas- 
ter." 1 Harris and Johnson''s Reports, 4. Cornfute vs. Dale. 

THE SLAVE HAS NO MARRIAGE RIGHTS. 

This foUow^s, of course, from his being a "chattel." The following 
is, unquestionably, law and fact throughout the slave states. 

" A slave has never maintained an action against the violator of his 
bed. A slave is not admonished for incontinence, or punished for 
fornication or adultery; never prosecuted for bigamy, or petty treason 
for killing a husband being a slave, any more than admitted to an ap- 
peal for murder." Opinion of Daniel Dulamj^ Esq, Attorney General 
of Maryland, 1 Maryland Reports, 561, 563. 

A COLORED PERSON CANNOT BE A WITNESS AGAINST A WHITE 
PERSON, EITHER IN A CIVIL OR CRIMINAL CAUSE. 

This principle readers whatever statutes may be framed in favor of 
the slave, perfectly nominal and nugatory. The master or any white 
man has only to remove white witnessess and he may perpetrate what 
cruelties upon slaves he pleases. In the ordinary driving of the cane 
and cotton fields there is but one wliite man present. In some of the 
slave states this principle is established by custom. In Virginia, and 
some other of the slave states, and in one of the free, there is the fol- 
lowing law : 

" Any negro or mulatto, bond or free, shall be a good witness in 
pleas of the commonwealth for or against negroes or mulattoes, bond or 
free, or in civil pleas where free negroes or mulattoes shall alone be par- 
ties, and in no other cases whatever.''^ 1 R. V. C. 422. Similar in Mis- 
souri, 2 Missouri Laws, 600. In Mississippi, Mississippi Rev. Code, 
372. In Kentucky, 2 Litt. 4- Sioi. 1150. In Alabama, Toidmin's 
Digest, 627. In Maryland, Maryland, Laws, act of 1717, ch. 13, § 2, 
fy 3, and an act of 1751, ch. 14, § 4. In North Carolina and Tennes- 
see, act of 1777, ch. 2, § 42. And in Ohio, act of Assembly, of Janu- 
ary 25, 1807. 

THE BURDEN OP PROOF THROWN UPON THE COLORED MAN. 

A wliite man may enslave any colored one, and, as between himself 
and the slave, the law does not require him to establish his claim. The 
slave is compelled to remain so, if he cannot prove his freedom. The 
South Carolina Act of 1 740, permits persons held as slaves and claiming 
to be free, to petition the judges of the Court of Common Pleas, who 
if they see cause may allow a guardian to bring an action for freedom 
against the master. The sequel of this law shows how poor is the en- 
couragement for both the suitor and his guardian. 

"And if judgment shall be given for the plantiff', a special entry shall 



8 SLAVE LAWg. 

be made, declaring, that the ward of the plantiff is free, and the iury 
shall assess damages which the plantiff's ward liath sustained, and the 
court shall give judgment and award execution against tlie defendant 
for such damages, with full costs of suit; but in case judgment shall be 
given for the defendant, the said court is hereby fully empowered to inflict 

SUCH CORPORAL PUNISHMENT, NOT EXTENDING TO LIFE OR LIMB, OR 

the xvard of the plantiff, as they in their discretion shall think fit. Pro- 
vided, that in any action or suit to be brought in pursuance of the 
direction of this act, the burden of the proof shall lay upon the 
plaintiff, and it shall be always presumed that evei-y negro, Indian, nnt- 
latto and mestizo, is a slave, unless the contrary be made to appear, (the 
Indians in amity with this government excepted, in which case, the 
burden of the proof shall be on the defendant") 2 Brevard^s Digest, 
229-30. 

Virginia shows her hostility to the claim for freedom by the following 
provision of her Revised Code: 

" For aiding and abetting a slave in a trial for freedom, if the claim- 
ant shall fail in his suit, a fine of one hundred dollars is imposed. 
1 Rev. Code, 482. 

The only known exception to this principle of throwing the burden 
of proof upon the person claimed as a slave, is in North Carolina, where 
persons of mixed blood, by a decision of the court are presumed to be 
free. Were this doctrine reversed, and the presumption to be in favor 
of liberty, thousands would be free at once. 

By this cruel presumption, free persons are constantly taken up on 
suspicion of being runaways, and after being in prison for some months, 
are sold to pay their jail fees. 

prohibition of mental instruction. 

South Carolina may lay claim to the earliest movement in legisla- 
tion on this subject. In 1740, while yet a province, she enacted^ this 
law: "Whereas the having of slaves taught to write, or suffering 
them to be employed in writing, may be attended with great incon- 
veniences, Be it enacted, That all and every person and persons what- 
soever, who shall hereafter teach or cause any slave or slaves to be 
taught to write, or shall use or employ any slave as a scribe in any 
manner of writing whatsoever hereafter taught to write, every such 
person or persons shall, for every such offence, forfeit the sum of one 
nundred pounds current money." 2 Brevard''s Digest, 243 ; similar 
in Georgia, by act of 1770, except as to the penalty, which is twenty 
pounds sterling. Princess Digest, 455. 

In the same state the following additional restraints were enacted in 
1800: 

" That assemblies of slaves, free negroes, mulattoes and mestizoes, 
whether composed of all or any of such description of persons, or of 
all or any of the same and of a proportion of white persons, met to- 
gether for the purpose o^ mental instruciion in a confined or secret 



SLAVE LAWS. 9 

place, &c&c.,is (are) declared to be an unlawful meeting, and magis 
trates, &c. &c., are hereby required, &c. to enter into such confined 
places, &c &c., to break doors, &c. if resisted, and to disperse such 
slaves, free negroes, &c. &c., and the officers dispersing such un- 
lawful assemblage, 7nay inflict such corporal punishment, not exceed- 
ing twenty lashes^ upon such slaves, free negroes, ^c. as they may judge 
necessary, for deterring them from the like unlawful assem- 
blage IN future." Brevard's Digest, 254. And another section 
of the same act declares, " That it shall not be lawful for any number 
of free negroes, mulattoes or mestizoes, even of slaves in company witli 
white persons, to meet together for the purpose of mental instruction, 
either before the rising of the sun or after the going down of the same.'' 
2 Brevard's Digest, 254-5. 

Virginia passed the following in 1819: 

" That all meetings or assemblages of slaves or free negroes or mulat- 
toes mixing and associating with such slaves at any meeting house, or 
houses, or any other place, &c. in the night, or at any school or schools for 
teaching them reading or writing either in the day or night, under what- 
soever pretext, shall be deemed and considered an unlawful assembly ; 
and anyjustice of a county, &c. wherein such assemblage shall be, either 
from his own knowledge or the information of others, of such unlawful 
assemblage, &c. may issue his warrant directed to any SM'orn officer or 
officers, authorizing liim or them to enter the house or houses where such 
unlawful assemblages, &c. may be, for the purpose of apprehending 
or dispersing such slaves, and to inflict corporal punishment on the 
offender or offenders, at the discretion of any justice of the peace, not 
exceeding twenty lashes.'" 1 Rev. Code, 424-5. 

Similar laws exist in most of the slave states, and in all, mental 
iyistruction is practically discouraged. 

RELIGIOUS worship. 

The southern statute books are full of laws against the assembling 
of slaves for religious worship, excepting under the most difficult and 
inquisitorial restrictions. The South Carolina Act of 1800 has the 
following: — 

"It shall not be lawful for any number of slaves, free negroes, mu- 
lattoes or mestizoes, even in company with white persons, to meet 
together and assemble for the purposeof mental instruction or religious 
worship, either before the rising of the sun or after the going down of 
the same. And all magistrates, sherifTs, militia officers, &,c. &c. are 
hereby vested with power, &c. for dispersing such assemblies," &c., 2 
Brevard's Digest, 254-5. 

THE SLAVE IS OBLIGED TO SURRENDER HIS RIGHTS TO OTHER 
WHITE PERSONS AS WELL AS HIS MASTER. 

Georgia has the following: — 

" If any slave shall presume to strike any xohite person, such slave, 



10 SLAVE LAWS. 

upon trial and conviction before the justice or justices, according to 
the directions of this act, sha'l for the first offence, suffer such punish- 
ment as the said justice or justices shall, in his or their discretion think 
fit, not extending to life or limb ; and for the second offence, suffer 

DEATH." 

The law is similar in South Carolina ; in both slates the slave is not 
punished, however, when he strikes "by the command, and in the 
defence of the person or property of the owner, &c." 

The Code of Louisiana gravely lays down the following principle: 

" Free people of colour ought never to insult or strike white people, 
nor presume to conceive themselves equal to the whites ; but on the 
contrary, they ought to yield to them on every occasion, and never speak 
or answer them, but with respect, under the penalty of imprisonment, 
according to the nature of the offence." 1 3/ar/in's Digest, 640-42. 

The following are specimens of the laws by which the whole white 
community have made themselves tyrants over the slaves: 

" If any slave shall happen to be slain for refusing to surrender him 
or herself, contrary to law, or in unlawful resisting any officer or 
other person, who shall apprehend or endeavour to apprehend, such 
slave or slaves, &.C., such officer or other person so killing such slave as 
aforesaid, making resistance, shall be, and he is by tliis act, indemni- 
fied from any prosecution for such killing aforesaid, &c." JMai-yland 
Laws, act y/1751, chap. xiv. § 9. 

And by the negro act of 1740, of South Carolina, it is declared, " If 
any slave, who shall be out of the house or plantation where such 
slave shall live, or shall be usually employed, or without some white 
person in company with such slave, shall refuse to submit to undergo 
the examination of any white person, it shall be lawful for such white 
person to pursue, apprehend and moderately correct such slave ; and 
if such slave shall assault and strike such white person, such slave 
may be laivfully killed ! .'" 2 Brevard's Digest, 231. 

The Penal Codes of the slaveholding states, bear much more 
severely upon the slaves than upon the whites. See Stroud, pp. 99 — 1 19. 

RESTRAINTS UPON EMANCIPATION. 

These exist in almost all the slave slates, and in some, certainly 
interfere with the master's right of property in the slave. In South 
Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, emancipation can take place only 
by special act of the legislature. In North Carolina no negro or 
mulatto slave can be set free ^'except for meritonous sennces to be 
adjudged of and allowed by the County Court.'''' In Tennessee the court 
is authorized to emancipate upon petition, if the measures set forth in 
the petition, are in the opinion of the court, "consistent with the interest 
and policy of the state." In Mississippi the legislature only can eman- 
cipate, by special act, and that only upon proof of meritorious services, 



SLAVE LAWS. 11 

8ic. In Kentucky, Missouri, Virgin's, and Maryland, emancipation 
may be effected by deeds registered in court, saving the " rights of 
creditors," and giving bonds for maintenance if required by the court. 
In Virginia, however, if the emancipated be over twenty-one, he must 
leave the state before the expiration of twelve months, or be reduced 
into slavery. In Louisiana emancipation is regulated as follows : 

" The master who wishes to emancipate his slave, is bound to make 
a declaration of his intention to the judge of the parish wher-i he re- 
sides ; the judge must order notice of it to be published duri ig forty 
days by advertisement posted at the door of the court house, ind if at 
the expiration of this delay, no opposition be made, he shall authorize 
the master to pass the act of emancipation." Art. 187. The general 
powers thus conferred, are subject nevertheless, to these limitations : 
"No one can emancipate his slave unless the slave has attained the 
age of thirty years, and has behaved well at least for four years pre- 
ceding his emancipation ;" Art. 185, except " a slave xoho has saved the 
life of his master, his master^s xoife, or one of his children,''^ for such a 
one ^'^ may be emancipated at any age." Art. 186. 

Slaves emancipated otherwise than by these formalities are liable to 
be reduced to slavery, and in probably all the states except North 
Carolina they are liable to be sold for the debts of their emancipators 
contracted before their emancipation. The State of Georgia has the 
following barbarous enactment : 

" If any person or persons shall, after the passing of this act (1801,) 
set free any slave or slaves, in any other manner and form than the 
one prescribed herein, (i. e. by special legislative act,) he shall forfeit 
for every such offence tioo hundred dollai-s, to be recovered by action of 
debt, or indictment, the one half to be applied to the use of the county 
in which the offence may have been committed, the other half to the 
use of the informer, and the said slave or slaves so manumitted and set 
free, shall be still to all intents and purposes as much in a state of slavery 
as before they were mannmitted and set free by the party or parties so 
offending." Pnnce^s Digest, 457. 

In 1818 this unrighteous edict was fortified by the following: 

" All and every will and testament, deed, whether by way of trust 
or otherwise, contract, agreement or stipulation, or other instrument in 
writing, or by parole, made and executed for the purpose of effecting 
or endeavouring to effect the manumission of any slave or slaves, 
either directly by conferring or attempting ^o confer freedom on such 
slave or slaves, or indirectly or virtually, by allowing and securing or 
attempting to allow and secure to such slave or slaves the right or 
privilege of working for his, her or themselves, free from the control of 
the master or owner of such slave or slaves, or of enjoying the profits 
of his, her or their labour or skill, shall be and the same are hereby 
declared to be utterly null and void ; and the person or persons so 
making, &c. any such deed, &c. &c., and all and every person or per- 
swis concerned in giving or attempting to give effect thereto, whether 



12 SLAVE LAWS. 

by accepting tlae trust thereby ceated or attempted to be created, or 
in any way or manner whatsot ver, shall be severally liable to a 
penalty not exceeding one thousand dollars, to be recovered, &,c. &c., 
and each and every slave or slaves in whose behalf such will or testa- 
ment, &c. &c., shall have been made, shall be liable to be arrested by 
warrant under the hand and seal of any magistrate of this state, and 
being thereof convicted, &.c. and shall be liable to be sold as a slave or 
slaves, by public outcry, and the proceeds of such sales shall be appro- 
priated, &.C. &c." Princess Digest, 466. 

LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

The Act of congress of 1793, respecting "persons escaping from 
the service of their masters," has the following section, whereby colored 
persons, or rather all persons, for there is no distinction in regard to 
color, are deprived of the right of trial by jury, a right granted to all 
persons by the constitution : 

"§ 3, ^ind be it further enacted, That when a person held to labor in 
any of the United States, or in either of the territories on the northwest 
or south of the river Ohio, under the laws thereof, shall escape into any 
other of the said states, or territory, the person to whom such labor, or 
service, may be due, his agent, or attorney, is hereby empowered to 
seize or arrest such fugitive from labor, and to take him or her before any 
judge of the circuit or district courts of the United States, residing, or 
being within the state, or before any magistrate of a county, city, or 
town corporate, wherein such seizure or arrest shall be made, and 
upon proof to the satisfaction of such judge, or magistrate, either by 
oral testimony, or affidavit, taken before and certified by a magistrate 
of any such state or territory, that the person so seized, or arrested, 
doth, under the laws of the state or territory from which he or she fled, 
owe serv'ice or labor to the person claiming him or her, it shall be the 
duty of such judge or magistrate, to give a certificate to such claimant, 
his agent, or attorney, which shall be sufficient warrant for removing 
the said fugitive from labor, to the state or territory, from which he or 
she fled."— £iore?i and Duane, Vol. Ill, p. 331. 

In an "Act to provide a revenue for the Canal Fund," ot tne Alder- 
men and Common Council of the city of Washington, passed by virtue 
of authority derived from the congress of the United States, we find 
the following : — 

"For a license to trade or traffic in slaves for profit, whether as agent 
or otherwise, four hundred dollars, &c. 

" § 2. And be it enacted, That the Register shall deposit all moneys 
received from taxes imposed by this Act, to the credit of the canal 
iuud.—Rothwell, Cily Laws, 249. 

[Approved, July 28, 1831.] 



18 
HUMAN SLAVERY; 

By Captain Majoribanks. 

*' Ah ! Afric's sons must stain the bloody shrine ! 
But all those victims, Avarice, are thine ! 
On Mercy's God, those tyrants dare to call ; 
But Av'rice only is their lord of all ! 
To him their rites incessantly they pay ; 
And waste for him the Negro's life away ! 
The British peasant ! healthy, bold, and free! 
Nor wealth, nor grandeur, half so blest as he ! 
That state of life, for happiness the first, 
Dare you compare with this the most accursed. 
You found them slaves — but who that title gave? 
The God of Nature never form'd a slave ! 
Though Fraud or Force acquire a master's name, 
Nature and. Justice must remain the same ! 
He who from thieves their booty, conscious, buys, 
May use an argument as sound and wise ; 
That he conceives no guilt attends his trade, 
Because the booty is already made. 

" Come, now, reflect what tender modes you take 
To make those beings labour— ^or your sake ! 
First, then, you are so generous and good 
To give them time to rear a little food ; 
On the same selfish principle, of course. 
You feed {far better though) your mule or horse. 
Small is the portion, poor the granted soil, 
Till'd by the Negro's restless Sabbath's toil ! 
What loud applause a master must deserve, 
Not to permit his property to starve ! 
Ere he conceives your meaning or your view. 
The whip directs him what he is to do. 
No sex, no age, you ever learn'd to spare ; 
But female limbs indecently lay bare ; 
See the poor mother lay her babe aside, 
And stoop to punishment she must abide ! 
Nor midst her pangs, her tears, her horrid cries, 
Dare the sad husband turn his pitying eyes. 



14 APPENDIX. 

IMMEDIATE EMANCIPATION. 

On the 23d of November, 1S37, petitions were presented to the 
House of" Lords, praying for the abohtion of apprenticeship in the 
Colonics. Lord Brougham, in presenting some of these petitions, 
took occasion to remark, that "Antigua, infinitely to her honor, had re- 
fused to accept the apprenticeship system, and instead thereof, had 
struck ofl'the fetters from her 40,0U0 slaves at a single blow." In re- 
gard to the results, he proceeded to say : — 

"Their lordships would naturally ask whether the experiment had 
succeeded, ana whether tliis sudden emancipation had been wisely 
and politically done. He should move for some returns, which he 
Avould venture to say, would prove that the experiment had entirely 
succeeded. He would give their lordships some proofs. First, pro- 
perty in that island had risen in value ; secondly, \\ ith very few ex- 
ceptions, and those of not greater importance than occurred in Eng- 
land during harvest, there was no deficiency in the number ofluborers 
to be obtained, when laborers were wanted ; thirdly, ofTences of all 
sorts, from capital offences downwards, had decreased — and this ap- 
peared from returns sent by the inspectors of slaves to the governor of 
the colony, and by him transmitted to the proper authority here : and 
fourtlily, the export of sugar had incieased. During the three years 
ending 1331, the average yearly export was I65,0u0 cwts, and for 
tlic three subsequent years, this average had increased to 189,000 cwts, 
being an increase of 24,000 cwtr-, or one clear seventh, produced by free 
labor as compared with slave labor. Nor were ihe three last years 
productive seasons, for in 1835 there was a very severe and destruc- 
tive hurricane, and in the year 1836 there was such a drought that 
water had to be imported from Barbadoes. He hoped, therefore, 
that other colonies would be compelled to follow the example so suc- 
cessfully and voluntarily set to them by the colony of Antigua." — 
J\Io)-ni}ig Herald. 

ANTIGUA — UNQUALIFIED ABOLITION, 

The following is extracted from the late work of Sturge & Harvey, 
of England, who travelled in the West Indies for the purpose of ascer- 
taining the working of the Abolition Act : — 

" We visited an estate about twelve miles distant from St. John's, 
Antigua, in the district called Bcrmudian Valley. It was purchased 
by two g;enllemen, immediately after the 1st of August, 1834; and 
though a losing concern to its former proprietor, now yields, as we were 
informed by one of the present owners, a liberal profit per annum clear 
of expenses and interest. 

"One of us called this morning, the I'ith Dec., upon the Hon. 
Samuel Warner, President of the council, whose testimony, like that 
of the Speaker, was decidedly favorable to the results of the emancipa- 
tion. 

" We called on the 15th upon the Governor to take leave, &c. He 
mentioned to us, that a gentleman, who was a proprietor, and also 
attorney for sixteen estates, and wlio had been strongly opposed to 
emancipation, had lately told him that he was at length saiisfied tcith 
tluc^ange^ and woxUd b;i sorry to return to the slave sysle^n. 

[See cover, pa^e 3rd.] 



APPENDIX. 15 

"Our opportunities of personal observation were extensive. "Wo 
had aL-so the privilege of free coininunicatioii with the in(»st intelligent 
and uillijcnlial persons in the colony. — Tliere is one subject upon which 
all are wp-eed — Ihctt the srreal expenment of abotition has succeeded be- 
yond the expectations of us most sanguine advocates. The measure has 
been felt to be one of emancipation of masters as well as slaves. The 
annual cost of cultivation is believed, by the most intelligent resident 
planters, to be on the average, one-tifth or one-sixth less than former- 
ly ; so that free labor is manifestly advantageous, taking even the nar- 
rowest view of the subject. There has been an augmentation of the 
import trade of the island. Houses and lands have risen in value, 
estates are noio worth as much as they ivere, xcith the slaves attached to 
them, before the allcdged depreciation in their value, in consequence of 
the agUatiun of the abolition question. The cultivation of one estate, 
which had been thrown up for twenty years, and of others which 
were on the point of being abandoned, has been resumed. The few 
sold since 1834 have been eagerly bought up at very high prices. 

" The advantages which the laborers have derived from emancipa- 
tion are numerous and complete enough to call for devout gratitude, 
on their behalf, from all who are interested in the progress of human 
happiness. The exuvice of slavery still hang about them, as well as 
their masters, but they possess now the capacity of elevating them- 
selves in the scale of being ; and they have means in their own power 
of escaping from oppression, by the choice of masters. 

"In the first year (after emancipation) caprice was frequently ma- 
nifested on the one hand, and a love of oppression on the other; but 
in this, the third year of freedom, the records of the police courts slww 
that both have materially decreased. 

" The Sabbath is more striciy obsei-ved in Antigua than in England, 
and the attendance on public worship very exemplary." 

FREE LABOR UNDER TOUSSAINT IN ST. DOMINGO. 

The historian who was employed to lull the French people, salve 
the wounded fame and pride of Bonaparte for the defeat of Le Clerc 
and llnci'.ambeau, and drown the cries of the widowF and orphans of 
60,000 Frenchmen, assigns the disafiection of the whites in the colony 
itself, as one great reason for the failure. He says, " It would seem 
to have been the natural course to organize into a national guard the 
inhabitants who were found in tlie towns on the arrival of the army ; 
but there was not a man in whom any confidence could be placed. 
The majority of the inhabitants of the towns loved the government of 
ToussAiNT, because he had gorged them with riches.'''' Again, in ex- 
cusing Rochambeau for the same failure to avail himself of the aid of 
the colonial whites, he says, " It may be said for him, that he could 
not, any more than Captain-General Le Clerc, put confidence in the 
whites, the majority of the inhabitants of the towns mourning, I repeat 
it, for the regime of Toussaint, which had enriched them."* 

The same author, to whom we have already referred, in describing 
the system of Toussaint in regard to the former slaves, vidio were re- 
quired by law to work, says, " they had a fourth part of the produce, 

♦ " Campagnes des Francais, Sfc,^ bv Albert de Lattre, a colonial proprietor 
aaJ paymaster of the French army— pp 84> 87. 



16 APPENDIX. 

tohickicas too much.'"* Soil seems he not only enriched the citizeni 
of the towns, but the laborers. 

The same author, unwittingly, furnishes the most convincing testi- 
mony in favor of the industry and economy of the emancipated people 
under the regime of Toussaint, when he makes the following recom- 
mendation for the future regulation of the colony : — 

" It is for the commercial interest of the Mother Country, and that 
of St Domingo itself, that the laborers should be paid for their share of 
the products of the soil, only in articles manufactured in France. The 
negroes already icilhdrnxo from circulation too much money by the sale of 
the productions of their industry, such as vegetables, fowls, eggs, fresh 
pork, <^-c."— p. 195. 

Such is the statement of an enemy to abolition, — a planter who 
owned an estate in St. Domingo while it was governed as a free laboi' 
colony by the black. Governor Toussaint Louverture, and who must 
have had the best means of knowing the things whereof he affirms. 
So far, then, were the freedmen of St. Domingo from sinking into idle- 
ness and want, that it was deemed necessary to provide against a 
diminution of the currency by their getting possession of it and hoard- 
ing it up, or paying it away for foreign manufactures ! ! 

DANIEL O'CONNELL. 

From his Speech before the Meeting in Exeter Hall, London, Jfov. 23d, 

1837. 

" It is not the slave alone who snfiTers, but the man who supports 
and abets the system. There may be physical degradation to the 
slave, but there is moral degradation, burnt in with iritn into the soul 
of the planter. (Cheers.) He ceases to be a man wlien he claims to 
be the master of liis fellow-man. I care not in what chme or country 
thif inhumanity exists. I hate it in all countries — in the serfr of Rus- 
sia, in the Poles, under the dominion of a ruthless miscreant tyrant — 
(Ci.eers) — and in the slavery of ihe unfortunate men of color, under the 
pretended friends of liberty in the United States. (Cheers.) Behold 
those pretended sons of freedom, those who declared that all per- 
sons were equal in the presence of God, that every man had an in- 
alk nable right to liberty — and proclaiming it, too, in the name of God 
— behold them asseverating it in the name of honor, their paltry honor. 
(Loud cheers.) They are at this moment organizing new slave states. 
Remember that another country has been committed to slaveholders. 
Thry have seized upon the territory of Texas, taking it from the Mexi- 
cans, the Mexicans having abolished slavery without apprentice- 
ship. (Loud cheers.) Remember that they have stolen, cheated, 
swindled, robbed a country, for the horrible purpose of continuing it in 
slavery. (Hear, hear, and cries of 'shame.') Remember that there 
is a treaty now on foot, in contemplation, at least, and only postponed 
between the President of the United States and these cruel ruffians, 
till this robbery of Texas from Mexico can be completed. Oh ! raise 
the voice of humanity against repubhcans who have sentiments of 
pride anrl feelings of self-exaltation. (Cheers.) Let us tell these re- 
publicans, that instead of standing the highest in the scale of luimanity, 
they are tlie basest of tlie base, and the vilest of the vile." 

* D$ Lattre, p. 197. 



THE PROGRESS OF HUMANITY. 




THE FIRST SCENE I.J BRITISH EMANCIPATION. 



Granville Sharpe rescuing a young African, claimed as a slave, from 
his tyrant, in presence of the Mayor of London. Sharpe pursued nis 
humane course, and his elahorate researches produced the work entitled 
"The injustice and dangerous tendency of toleratms slavery," and pro- 
cured the o-rand and glorious decision from the British courts of justice 
published in 1769 in the face of all Euiope and the world, " That every 
slave was free, as soon as he had set foot upon British ground." This 
Herculean achievement laid the corner stone of the hallowed temple of 
African liberty [since extended t» all British Territories.] 

David Sinipsvn. 



THE PROGRESS OF HUMANITY. 




THE LAST SCENE IN BRITISH EMANCIPATIO>J. 



" AftfJr the 1st, Aug. 1834, slavery shall be and is hereby utterly and 
forever abolished and declared unlawful throughout tha BRiTish colonies 
plantations, and possessions abroad." ^ct, 3d and 4th, JVilliam IV, 

This noble Act was traininelled with an apprenticeship (to slavery to 
prepare its victims for freedom !) Antigua and Bermuda, dechned the prof- 
fered continuation, with, of course, the happiest results. The Legislatures 
of Jamaica, Barbadoes, St. Vincent, St. Kitts, and the West Indies gen- 
erally, have done likewise and on Aug. 1, 1938, three -fourths of a million 
cf humun being:* were, Ijy law, restored to their birth-ri^lU by Xatufe. 



ANTISLAVERY PUBLICATIONS. 



O" This pamphlet by no means includes selections from all the 
works extant on its theme, nor all that has been said by the au- 
thors quoted, from whom more ample extracts may be found in 
the larger pamphlet — " Liberty." With a few necessary excep. 
tions, the " Abolitionists''' of the present day have been omitted ; 
those who wish to prosecute the subject are referred to the follow- 
ing Catalogue of their periodicals and publications. 

ANTJ-SLAVERY PERIODICALS. 
Weekly. 

EMANCIPATOR, 143 Nassau-st., New York, Joshua Leavitt, 
Editor, ^2 50, in advance. 

COLORED AMERICAN, 161 Duane-st., N. Y., C. B. Ray 
and Co., Publishers, $2. 

ZION'S WATCHMAN, 9 Spruce-street, N. Y., Le Roy 
Sunderland, Editor, ^2. 

LIBERATOR, 25 Cornhill, Boston, Wm. Lloyd Garrison, 
Editor, ^2 50. 

HERALD OF FREEDOM, Concord, N. H., N. P. Rogers, 
Editor, fl. 

FRIEND OF MAN, 56 Genesee st ^ Utica, N. Y., WUliam 
Goodell, Editor, $2. 

PHILANTHROPIST, N. W. Corner of Main and 6th streets, 
Cincinnati, O., Gamaliel Bailey, Jun. Editor, $2. 

PENNSYLVANIA FREEMAN, 29 North 9th st„ Phila- 
delphia, John G. Whittier, Editor, ^2. 

VOICE OF FREEDOM, Montpelier, Vt., C. L. Knapp, Edi- 
tor, $2. 

MASSACHUSETTS ABOLITIONIST, Boston, Mass., E. 
Wright, jun. Editor, ^1. 

CHRISTIAN WITNESS, 7, Fifth st., Pittsburg, Pa., Wm. 
H. Burleigh, Editor, $2. 

ROCHESTER FREEMAN, Rochester, N. Y., Myron Holly, 
Editor, ^2. 

FREEMAN, by Wm. M. Sullivan, Jackson, Mich. 

N. YORK EVANGELIST, New York, Rev. N. E. Johnson, 
Editor, ^2 50 cts. 

GENIUS OF UNIVERSAL EMANCIPATION, Hennepin, 
111., Benjamin Lundy, Editor, $2. 

CRADLE OF TJBERTY, Boston, W. L. Garrison, 75 cts. 

CHRISTIAN REFLECTOR, Rev. C. P. Grosvenor, Editor, 
Worcester, Ms., and N. Southard, agent for New York. 

SPECTATOR, Montrose, Pa., Post and Worden. Editors. 82. 



18 



ANTI-SLAVERV PUBLICATIONS, 



VERMONT TELEGRAPH, Brandon, Vt., O. S. Murray, 

Editor, ,S^- 

OBSERVER AND CONGREGATIONALIST, Hartford, 
Ct., Rev. E. R. Tyler, Editor, ^2. 

Semi-monthly. 

ADVOCATE OF FREEDOM, Brunswick, Me., 50 cts. 

Monthly. 

ANTI-SLAVERY LECTURER, Utica, N. Y.,Wm. GoodeU, 
Editor, 25 cts.. 

ZION'S WATCHTOWER Perry, Genesee Co., N. Y., by 

THE VISITOR, Newark, N. J., A. Guest, 120 Market-st. 
CHARTER OAK, S. S. Cowlcs, Publisher, Hartford,Ct., 25 cts. 

CATALOGUE OF PUBLICATIONS, 

For Sale at the Depository of the American Anti Slavery Society, 
143, Nassau Street, and at the Depositories in Boston, Hartford, 
Provid.-nce, Philadelphia, Utica, Cincinnati, Pittsburg, Concord, 
N. H., Vergennes, Vt., &c. 



BOUND VOLUMES. 

Anti-Slavery Examiner — being Pamphlets, A. E. 
Grimk6's Appeal to Christian Women of the 
South ; Smith to Smylic ; Power of Congress over 
the District of Columbia ; Bible vs. Slavery ; Eman- 
cipation in the West Indies, by Thome and Kim- 
ball, and Elmore Correspondence, (bound in one 



vol.) 



American Slavery as it is, in boards, . 
Anti-Slavery Manual, 18mo. .... 
Alton Riots, by Pres. Beecher, of Illinois College, 

Alton Trials, 12mo 

American Liberties and American Slavery, 
Anti-Slavery Record, 12mo. vols. 1,2 and 3, each. 

Appeal by Mrs. Child, 12mo 

Ball, Charles, r2mo 

Beauties of Pliilanlhropy, .... 

Bourne's Picture of Slavery, l8mo. 

Chloe Spear, iBmo. 

Cabinet of Freedom, (Clarkson's history of the 

slave trade) 3 vols. r2mo. per vol. . 
Chandler, E. M. Poetical works of, 12mo. 
Channing on Slavery, l2mo. . . . • 

Dissertation on Servitude, l2mo.by the Rev. L. A. 

Sawyer, 

Emancipation in W. I., by Thome and Kimball, 

do by do in boards, with a map, 
Enemies of the Constitution Discovered, l2mo. 
Fountain, plain bmding, 64mo 



Single. Hund. 



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37 50 


25 


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62 


45 00 


50 


37 50 


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75 00 


31 


25 00 


37i 


33 00 


25 


lUO 00 


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25 


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44 00 


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23 00 


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30 


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40 00 



19 1 12 50 



ANTI-SLAVERY PUBLICATIONS. 



19 



Gr! Hike's (A. E.) Letters to Miss Beeclier, 

GustavLis Vassa. 12mo. .... 

History of the Pennsylvania Hall, 

Jay's Inquiry, 12ino 

Jay's View of the action of the Federal Govern 
mcnt, in behalf of Slavery, 

Light and Love, 198mo. .... 

Light and Truth, 18mo 

Law of Slavei-y, 8vo. .... 

Life of Granville Sharp, .... 

Memoir of R.ev. E. P. Lovejoy, l2nio. 

Memoir of Rev. Lemuel Haynes, 12mo. 

Memoir of William Wilberforce, 

Negro Pew, l8mo. ..... 

Quarterly Anti-Slavery Magazine, 8vo. 

Rankin's Letters, 18mo. .... 

Right and Wrong in Boston, 18mo. 

Slavery — containing Declaration of Sentiments 
and Constitution of the Am. A. S. Society — 
Wesley's Thoughts on Slavery — Does the Bible 
Sanction Slavery ? — Address to the Synod of 
Kentucky — Narrative of Amos Dresser, and 
Why work for the Slave ? bound in one vol. 

Slave's Friend, 32mo. vols. 1, 2 and 3, each, 

Star of Freedom, 32mo. .... 

Thompson in America, 12mo. 

Thompson's Reception in Great Britain, 12mo. 

Thompson's Lectures and Debates, 12mo. 

Testimony of God against Slavery, 18mo. 

Tracts, miniature series, bound, 

Wesley's Thoughts on Slavery, in muslin, 
" " "in morocco, 

Wheatley, Phillis, l8mo. Mem. and Poems, 

Wheatlc}', Phillis Memoir of, . . . 

Wheeler, Peter, Narrative of, 

Whittier's Poems, plain, .... 
" gilt, .... 

PAMPHLETS. 

American Anti-Slavery Almanac, $30 for 1000, 
Appeal to the Women of the nominally Free States 
Address to the Presbyterians of Kentucky, 
American Slavery AS IT IS — the Testimony of a 

Thousand Witnesses, 

Address to the Churches of Jesns Christ, by the 

Evangelical Union A. S. Society, N. Y. city, 
Anti-Slavery Catechism, by Mrs. Cliild, . " . 
Adams', J. Quincy's, Letters, to his Constituents, 
A Jams', J. Q. Oration at Newburyport, 
Aiiams', J, Q. Speech on the Texas question, 



Single. 
37^ 
621 

1 25 

62 i 

25 

31 

50 

31 

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00 

25 

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75 

25 

25 



31 
25 
15 

37il 

37i 

50 

25 

25 

18| 

25 

37i 

19 

50 

75 

50 



6 
12 
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37i 

8 

8 
25 
25 



Hund. 


25 00 


45 00 


112 00 


30 00 


50 00 


18 00 


25 00 


400 00 


25 00 


83 33 


90 00 


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17 00 


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17 00 



25 00 


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20 



ANTI-SLAVRRY PUBLICATIONS. 



Apoloify for Abolitionists, 

Appeal to the Christian Women of the Soutli, 

Allen's Report, 

Address to the Methodist General Conference 

Anecdotes of American Slavery, 

Birney's Letter to the Churches, 

Basse tt, William, Letter to the Friends 

Bible atrainst, Slavery, 

Chattel Principle — a Summary of the New Tes 

tament arjrumenton Slaverv, by Pres. Green, 
Channing's Letter to Phillips, on Clay's speech, 
" Letter to Clay, 
" " to James G. Birney, 

Crandall, Reuben, Trial of, ... 

Cincinnati Riots, . . . , . 

Dissertation on Servitude, by Rev. L. A. Sawyer, 
Dickinson's Sermon, . . . . , 

Does the Bible sanction slavery, 
Dec. of Sentiments and Consti. of the A. A. S. Soc 
Discussion between Thompson and Breckinridge 
Dresser's Narrative, .... 

Epistle to the Clergy of the Southern States, 
Evils and Cure of Slavery, by Mrs. Child, 
Elmore Correspondence, 
Emancipation in the W.I., by Thome and Kimball 

in 1838, 
First Annual Report of the Com. of Vigilance 
Father Ward's Letter, .... 
Guardian Genius of the Federal Union, 
Garrison's Speech, August 1, 1838, 
Generous Planter, ..... 
Immediate, not Gradual Abolition, 
.lay's Thoughts on the duty of the Episcopal 

Church, ...... 

Liberty, 8vo. 

l2mo. 

Morris's Speech in answer to Ciay, 
Mahan's, Rev. John B., trial in Kentucky, 
Martyr age in America, by Harriet Martincau, 
Power of Congress over the District of Columbia 
Products of Slave Jjabor by Charles Marriott, 
Roper, Moses, Narrative of a Fugitive Slave, 

Rights of Colored Men 

Reports of Am.. Mass.,N.Y., and Pa., A. S. Soc 
Rural Code of Haiti, .... 

Ruggles' Antidote, ..... 

Report on People of Color in Ohio, 
Slavelioldiiig Weighed in the Balance, 
Slavery Rhymes, . , . . . 

Sladq's Speech in Congress, 



.Suigle 

6 

6 

6 

3 

3 

3 
10 
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8 
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Hund. 



12 50 

9 00 

18 00 

8 00 

5 00 
8 00 

8 00 
18 00 
10 00 

1 00 

1 00 
28 00 

4 00 

3 00 

2 50 

9 00 

13 25 

4 00 
18 00 

1 00 
10 00 

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20 00 
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4 00 
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ANTI-SLAVERY PUBLICATIONS. 



21 



Appeal of Forty Thousand Citizens of Pennsyl 
vania, 

Smith's, Gerrit, Letter to James Smylie, 

" to Rev. Dr. Schmuckor, on Colonization, 
" Letter to Henry Clay, 

Slaveholding invariably sinful, 

Stanton's Speech, 

'The Martyr by Beriah Green, 

Things for Northern Men to do. 

Twenty Millions thrown away. 

Views of Colonization, by Rev. James A. Nourse 

Views of Slavery Sc Emanc'pation.by MissxMartineau, 

Valuable Documents, 

Wesleyan Anti-Slavery Review, 

Wesley's Thoughts on Slavery, 

War in Texas, by Benj. Lundy, 

West India Question, by Charles Stewart, 

Why Work for the Slave ? 

TRACTS. 

No. 1. St. Domingo, . , 

— 2. Caste, .... 

— 3. Colonization, 

— 4. Moral Condition of the Slaves, 

— 5 What is Abolition ? 

— 6. The Ten Commandments, 

— 7. Danger and Safety, 
-- 8. Pro-Slavery Bible, 

— 9. Prejudice against Color, 

— 10. Northern Dealers in Slaves, 

— 11. Slavery and Missions, 

— 12, Dr. Nelson's Lecture on Slavery, 

PRINTS, *fcc. 
Illustrations of the Anti-Slavery Almanac for 1840 
Likeness of E. P Lovcjoy, .... 

The Emancipated Family, .... 

Slave Market of America, .... 

Correspondence between O'Connell and A.Stevenson, 
Portrait of James G. Birney, .... 

" Gerrit Smith, .... 

'' Benjamin Lundy, . . ; . 

Inna, the Booroom Slave, .... 

Clay and Calhoun, 

Dr. Franklin an Abolitionist, .... 

Our Countrymen in Chains, .... 

A Bird's-eye View of American Slavery, 
Printer's Picture Gallerj^', .... 

The Negro's Complaint, .... 

Letter Paper,2 cts. sheet, SOcts.quire, ^9 one ream, 
MUSIC. Freedom's Alarm. . . . > 



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